LIBRARY  ^.< 

/ 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

V          GIFT  O 


Class 


READING  FOR 
HILDREI 


THE    RIGHT    READING   FOR 
CHILDREN 


IN   THE   SCHOOL,   THE   HOME,   AND 
THE    LIBRARY 


LITERATURE  presents  the  ideal  of  human  life  as  it  has  expressed 
itself  in  the  great  institutions  of  family,  church,  state,  and  society. 
It  clothes  these  ideals  in  the  flowing  robes  of  the  imagination  and 
adorns  them  with  the  jewels  of  well-chosen  words,  set  in  rhythmic 
and  melodious  forms.  To  feed  the  mind  of  youth  on  the  ideals 
of  a  noble  and  elevated  human  life  ;  to  win  his  fidelity  to  the  family 
through  sweet  pictures  of  parental  affection,  and  filial  devotion,  and 
pure  household  joys ;  to  secure  his  loyalty  to  the  state  by  thrilling 
accounts  of  the  deeds  of  brave  men  and  heroic  women ;  to  make 
righteousness  attractive  by  pointed  fable,  or  pithy  proverb,  or  strik- 
ing tale  of  self-sacrificing  fidelity  to  the  costly  right  against  the 
profitable  wrong ;  to  inflame  with  a  desire  to  emulate  the  example 
of  patriot,  martyr,  and  philanthropist,  —  this  is  the  social  mission  of 
good  literature  in  the  public  schools.  To. interpret  this  literature, 
so  that  it  comes  home  to  the  boys  and  girls,  so  that  they  see  re- 
flected in  it  the  image  of  their  own  better  selves,  so  that  they  carry 
with  them  its  inspiration  through  all  their  after  lives,  —  this  is  the 
duty  and  privilege  of  the  public  school.  It  is  not  of  so  much  con- 
sequence what  a  boy  knows  when  he  leaves  school,  as  what  he 
loves.  The  greater  part  of  what  he  knows  he  will  speedily  forget. 
What  he  loves  he  will  feed  on.  His  hunger  will  prompt  his  efforts 
to  increase  his  store.  The  love  of  good  literature  —  a  genuine 
delight  in  Longfellow  and  Whittier,  Lowell  and  Tennyson,  Haw- 
thorne and  Scott,  Shakespeare  and  Homer  —  is,  from  every  point 
of  view,  the  most  valuable  equipment  with  which  the  school  can 
send  its  boys  and  girls  into  the  world. 

WILLIAM  DE  WITT   HYDE, 

President  of  Bowdoin  College. 


The  Right 
Reading  for  Children 

In  the  School  the  Home 
and  the  Library 


COMPILED    BY 

CHARLES 

Author  of  "Some  Notes  on  the  History  of  Children's 
Literature,"    "A   Bookseller  of  the  Last  Cen- 
tury,"   "  Publishing  a  Book,"   Etc. 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 

D.   C.   HEATH    &    CO.,   PUBLISHERS 
1902 


COPYRIGHT,  1902, 
BY   D.   C.   HEATH  &  Co. 


CONTENTS 

LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES  QUOTED vi 

THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR  CHILDREN i 

THE  RIGHT  READING  IN  THE  SCHOOL          .        .        .  17 

THE  RIGHT  READING  IN  THE  HOME 33 

THE  RIGHT  READING  IN  THE  LIBRARY         ....  43 

THE  RIGHT  READING,  A  GRADED  LIST  53 

A  FEW  WORDS  OF  APPROVAL 77 


106582 


LIST   OF   AUTHORITIES   QUOTED 


Abernethy,  Julian  W. 
Adams,  (Dr.)  Herbert. 
American  Journal  of  Education. 
Arnold,  D.  C. 
Arnold,  Sarah  Louise. 

Barr,  Hope. 
Beecher,  (Supt.)  A.  D. 
Bentley,  (Supt.)  M.  E.  B. 
Browning,  E.  Barrett. 
Burton,  Q,  Pierce. 
Burton,  (Prof.)  Richard. 

Channing,  William  E. 
Chicago  Course  of  Study. 
Cleveland,  V.  D. 
Cole,  (Supt.)  W.  H. 
Coler,  C.  S. 
Collyer,  Robert. 
Comenius,  Jacob. 
Cook,  (Prof.)  A.  S. 

Davis,  Eben  H. 
Donald,  (Dr.)  E.  W. 

Emerson,  R.  W. 
Field,  Walter  Taylor. 
Griffith,  (Supt.)  Z.  A. 

Hall,  (Dr.)  G.  Stanley. 
Hall,  L.  J. 

Hardy,  (Prof.)  G.  E. 
Harper's  Bazar. 
Harris,  Ada  Van  Stone. 
Harris,  (Dr.)  W.  T. 
Hayden,  (Supt.)  H.  B. 
Herbart,  Johann  F. 
Hewins,  (Miss)  C. 
Higginson,  T.  Wentworth. 
Hofer,  (Mrs.)  A. 

King,  (Supt.)  Orvis. 
Knapp,  Adeline. 

Laing,  Mary  A. 
Lange,  (Dr.)  Karl. 
Lawrence,  Isabel. 
Lewis,  (Principal)  W.  D. 
Lowe,  Mae. 
Lowell,  James  Russell. 
Lubbock,  (Sir)  John. 
Lytton,  (Lord). 


Mabie,  Hamilton  W. 
Martineau,  Harriet. 
McMurray,  (Dr.)  Frank. 
Meghell,  (Mrs.)  Ida. 
Miles,  (Supt.)  A.  W. 
Munsey's  Magazine. 

Norton,  (Prof.)  Charles  Eliot. 
Norval,  Josephine. 

Parker,  (Col.)  F.  W. 
Peabody,  (Miss). 
Powell,  (Supt.)  H. 

Rein,  (Dr.),  of  Jena. 
Ring,  Orvis. 
Ruskin,  John. 

School  Journal. 

School  Review,  The. 

Scott,  Edith  A. 

Scott,  (Sir)  W. 

Scudder,  Horace  E. 

Shute,  (Miss)  Katharine  H. 

Slauson,  (Supt.)  H.  M. 

Smith,  (Mrs.)  Nora  A. 

Soldan,  (Supt.)  F.  L. 

Southey,  Robert. 

Spectator,  The. 

Steele,  (Supt.)  W.  L. 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Belleville,  O. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Madison,  Wis. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Monmouth. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Oskaloosa. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Saulte  Ste.  Marie. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Springfield,  111. 

Thomas,  A.  O. 
Thoreau,  Henry  D. 
Thurber,  S. 
Trollope,  Anthony. 

Van  Petten,  E. 

Waid,  Gail  Hamilton. 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley, 
Winchester,  (Prof.)  C.  T. 
Wissler,  Clark. 

Ziller  (Professor). 


The   Right   Reading   for   Children 


"  Book  love,  my  friends,  is  your  pass  to  the  greatest,  the 
purest,  and  the  most  perfect  pleasures  that  God  has  prepared 
for  his  creatures.  It  lasts  when  all  other  pleasures  fade.  It 
will  support  you  when  all  other  recreations  are  gone.  It  will 
last  you  until  your  death.  It  will  make  your  hours  pleasant  to 
you  as  long  as  you  live."  —  ANTHONY  TROLLOPE. 

"  The  choice  of  books,  like  that  of  friends,  is  a  serious  duty. 
We  are  as  responsible  for  what  we  read  as  for  what  we  do.  The 
best  books  elevate  us  into  a  region  of  disinterested  thought, 
where  personal  objects  fade  into  insignificance,  and  the  troubles 
and  the  anxieties  of  the  world  are  almost  forgotten."  —  SIR 
JOHN  LUBBOCK. 

"  Give  a  boy  a  passion  for  books,  and  you  give  him  thereby  a 
lever  to  lift  his  world,  and  a  patent  of  nobility,  if  the  thing  he 
does  is  noble."  —  ROBERT  COLLYER. 


The    Right   Reading   for   Children 

IN  the  vast  treasures  of  our  literature  there  is 
good  material  for  every  stage  in  the  child's  mental 
development,  material  which  is  life  giving,  upbuild- 
ing and  stimulating,  and  character  making,  but  the 
quantity  is  so  great  that  choice  must  be  made  by 
experts,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  into 
whose  hands  such  choice  falls,  for  books  should 
be  as  carefully  selected  for  children  as  the  food 
they  eat.  Young  people  should  be  allowed  to 
browse  among  books  which  have  been  selected 
for  them,  but  not  to  range  free  over  every  field 
and  pasture.  As  James  Russell  Lowell  says, 
"  Children  will  be  sure  to  get  what  they  want,  and 
we  are  doing  a  grave  wrong  to  their  morals  by 
driving  them  to  do  things  on  the  sly,  to  steal  that 
food  which  their  constitution  craves,  and  which  is 
wholesome  for  them,  instead  of  having  it  freely  and 

Cmkly  given  them  as  the  wisest  possible  diet." 
Again,  books  are  good  for  boys  and  girls  only 
they  are  ready  for  them.     It  often  happens  that 
when  a  child  has  once  taken  up  a  book  which  has 
failed  to  interest  him,  it  has  left  a  memory  behind 
which  has  prevented  him  from  ever  looking  into 
it  when  he  has  come  across  it  again  later  in  life. 

3 


4  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

If  he  had  found  the  book  when  he  was  ready  for 
it,  its  seeds  of  wisdom  would  have  fallen  on  good 
ground  and  brought  forth  abundantly. 

"  Without  doubt  there  is  a  most  favorable  period 
in  every  child's  life  for  the  reading  of  each  book," 
says  Dr.  Frank  McMurry.  "  If  offered  to  him  at 
just  the  right  age,  it  appeals  to  his  nature  with 
peculiar  power,  even  to  the  extent  of  setting  him 
on  fire ;  if  offered  at  any  other,  it  may  prove  inter- 
esting, but  it  fails  to  become  such  a  potent  factor 
in  his  life.  There  would  be  a  wonderful  economy 
of  effort  if  the  books  selected  for  children  were 
always  given  them  at  this  favorable  time." 

Therefore  we  should  provide  groups  of  books 
for  children  to  select  from  for  themselves  —  not 
single  books  for  which  we  think  the  child  ought 
to  be  ready  at  a  particular  stage  of  his  develop- 
ment, and  force  them  upon  him,  but  we  should  let 
him  have  a  free  rein  within  certain  very  broad 
limits.  Harriet  Martineau  says :  "  The  parent's 
main  business  is  to  look  to  the  quantity  of  the 
books  the  children  read,  and  he  must  see  that  the 
children  have  the  freest  access  to  those  of  the  best 
quality.  The  child's  own  mind  is  a  better  judge 
in  this  case  than  the  parent's  suppositions.  Let 
but  noble  books  be  on  the  shelf,  and  the  child  will 
get  nothing  but  good." 

The  late  Professor  George  E.  Hardy  wrote: 
"Worthless  literature  is  the  curse  of  the  child's 


THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN  5 

intellect  and  the  bane  of  the  child's  morals,  yet  it 
has  the  market ;  and  its  widespread  distribution 
and  rapid  sale  are  striking  testimony  alike  to  the 
deterioration  of  the  popular  taste,  and  of  our 
defective  scheme  of  elementary  education." 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  says  that  "  good  litera- 
ture is  as  necessary  to  the  growth  of  the  soul  as 
good  air  to  the  growth  of  the  body,  and  it  is  just 
as  bad  to  put  weak  thoughts  into  a  child's  mind  as 
to  shut  it  up  in  an  unventilated  room,"  and  says 
Superintendent  E.  Van  Petten  of  Bloomington, 
Illinois:  " Give  the  children  literature.  Let  us  not 
make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  a  child  cannot 
apprehend  a  story  that  has  depth  of  meaning; 
i  let  us  not  think  that  immortal  books  are  for  the 
\§cholar  only,  and  hence  we  must  make  a  book 
fit  for  the  child.  Shall  we  not  accept  some 
expert  help  ? " 

Jacob  Comenius  in  his  "  School  of  Infancy " 
tells  us  that  "  the  principles  of  poetry  arise  with 
the  beginning  of  speech ;  for  as  soon  as  the  child 
begins  to  understand  words,  at  the  same  time  it 
begins  to  love  melody  and  rhythm.  Therefore 
nurses,  when  a  child,  from  having  fallen  or  injured 
itself,  is  wailing,  are  wont  to  solace  it  with  the  old 
nursery  rhymes,  which  please  infants  so  much 
that  they  not  only  become  immediately  quiet,  but 
even  smile.  The  nurses  also,  patting  them  with 
the  hand  soothingly,  chant  the  rhymes  to  the  chil- 


6  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

dren.  In  the  third  and  fourth  year  some  such 
rhymes  may  be  beneficially  taught ;  in  the  fourth, 
fifth,  and  sixth  years  the  child  will  increase  this 
knowledge  of  poetry  by  committing  little  verses 
to  memory.  Although  children  may  not  at  this 
time  understand  what  rhythm  or  verse  is,  yet  by 
use  they  learn  to  note  a  certain  difference  between 
measured  language  and  prose ;  nay,  when  in  due 
time  everything  shall  be  explained  in  the  schools, 
it  will*  afford  them  pleasure  to  find  that  they  had 
previously  learned  something  which  they  now 
understand  the  better." 

As  to  the  place  of  the  Mother  Goose  literature, 
Miss  Peabody  in  her  Lectures  to  Kindergartners, 
says:  "  It  will  be  found  that  children  who  are 
talked  to  by  Mother  Goose  and  fairy-story  tellers 
learn  to  talk  more  quickly  than  others,  and  have 
more  vivacity  of  mind  generally,  with  a  power  of 
entering  into  the  minds  of  others  commensurate 
with  their  sensibility,  and  justifying  the  human 
sympathies  which  are  often  a  burden  to  the  un- 
imaginative, who  are  nevertheless  kind.  I  have 
known  some  parents  who  would  not  use  Mother 
Goose  or  fairy  stones  with  their  children,  but  sub- 
stituted therefor  amusing  experiments  in  physics, 
the  metamorphosis  of  insects  and  the  classifica- 
tion of  plants  according  to  their  differences. 
Their  children  became  scientific  when  they  grew 
up,  were  fine  mathematicians,  and  were  interested 


THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN-  7 

in  mechanical  inventions  and  natural  history;  but 
took  comparatively  little  interest  in  political  and 
moral  problems,  though  not  at  all  wanting  in  the 
social  and  patriotic  affections." 

"  Stories  about  real  or  imaginary  beings,  from 
epic  fairy  tales,  best  supply  what  a  child  needs," 
says  Herbart  in  his  Introduction  to  the  "  Science 
and  Practice  of  Education."  "  They  are  simple 
and  yet  full  of  imagination;  they  are  morally  cul- 
tivating, for  they  put  situations  or  relationships 
before  the  child  which  call  out  the  moral  judg- 
ment either  in  approval  or  disapproval.  As  he 
grows  older,  and  his  experience  becomes  richer, 
the  real  in  the  tales  is  less  cared  for,  and  more 
interest  is  taken  in  the  poetical  and  ideal  truth  of 
the  aesthetic  and  ethical,  which  thus  remains  as  a 
residue  much  to  be  desired,  giving  an  ideal  direc- 
tion to  the  thoughts,  and  a  higher  activity  to  the 
intellectual  life.  If  the  child  came  in  the  tales  in 
contact  with  nothing  but  actual  realities,  his  mind 
would  soon  become  open  only  to  the  commonest 
sensuous  impressions,  and  would  have  neither 
sensibility  nor  receptivity  for  poetry,  nor  for  the 
wonder  and  reverence  which  is  part  of  religion. 
Again,  all  education  must  start  from  the  indi- 
vidual, but  with  the  aim  of  raising  the  pupil  above 
his  individuality,  of  correcting  the  tendency  of 
imagination  to  centre  in  self,  by  placing  him 
amidst  general  human  companionships. 


8  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

"  For  the  beginning  of  moral  culture,  weak  and 
uncertain  in  itself,  will  be  interfered  with  by  every- 
thing that  makes  the  individual  self  the  point  of 
reference  for  the  world  outside  of  it. 

"  This  danger  these  tales  tend  to  prevent.  They 
widen  out  the  child's  consciousness  from  self  to 
those  about  him,  from  the  local  to  the  national, 
and  from  the  national  to  all  mankind ;  they  lead 
him  into  sympathy  with  that  childlike  spirit  which 
was  a  characteristic  of  the  childhood  of  the  race ; 
they  are  a  sure  means  of  creating  ethical  judgment 
and  religious  feeling  in  the  simplest  relationships 
within  the  child's  sphere  of  apperception." 

"  As  in  every  other  kind  of  reading,"  says  Hope 
Barr,  "  one  ought  to  use  discretion  as  to  the  kind 
and  amount  of  fairy  stories  for  a  certain  period  in 
the  child's  life.  Of  course  only  the  best  should 
be  selected,  and  much  depends  on  the  disposition 
of  the  child.  A  highly  imaginative  child  should 
not  be  allowed  free  range,  while  to  the  common- 
place, matter-of-fact  one,  the  fairy  story  is  in- 
valuable in  awakening  the  hitherto  dormant 
creative  faculties." 

Mrs.  Nora  Archibald  Smith  tells  us  that  "  we 
must  beware  of  giving  a  one-sided  development 
by  confining  ourselves  too  much  to  one  branch  of 
literature;  we  must  include  in  our  repertory  some 
well-selected  myths,  fairy  stories  which  are  pure 
and  spiritual  in  tone,  and  a  fable  now  and  then. 


THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHIL 


Nature  stories,  hero  tales,  animal  anecdotes,  occa- 
sional narratives  about  good,  wholesome  children, 
neither  prigs  nor  infant  villains,  plenty  of  fine 
poetry,  as  has  been  said,  and,  for  the  older  ones 
of  the  family,  legends,  allegories,  and  historic  hap- 
penings. Children  feel,  as  Lord  Lytton  said,  the 
beauty  and  the  holiness  that  dwell  in  the  custom- 
ary and  the  old ;  and  they  are  well  pleased  —  and 
it  is  best  that  it  should  be  so  —  with  hearing  the 
same  old  favorites  repeated  again  and  again,  in 
song  and  in  story,  from  their  mother's  lips." 

Apropos  of  this  older  literature  President  G. 
Stanley  Hall,  tells  us  to  "  acquaint  the  boys  with 
^Esop's  fables  and  others." 

Herbart  further  tells  us  that  "  the  intent  to 
teach  spoils  children's  books  at  once ;  it  is  forgot- 
ten that  every  one,  the  child  included,  selects  what 
suits  him  from  what  he  reads,  and  judges  the 
writing  as  well  as  the  writer  after  his  own  fashion. 
.  .  .  But  give  to  them  an  interesting  story, 
rich  in  incidents,  relationships,  characters,  strictly 
in  accordance  with  psychological  truth,  and  not 
beyond  the  feelings  and  ideas  of  children ;  make 
no  effort  to  depict  the  worst  or  the  best,  only  let 
a  faint  half-unconscious  moral  tact  secure  that  the 
interest  of  the  action  tends  away  from  the  bad 
towards  the  good,  the  just,  the  right,  then  you  will 
see  how  the  child's  attention  is  fixed  upon  it,  how 
it  seeks  to  discover  the  truth  and  think  over  all 


10          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

sides  of  the  matter,  how  the  many-sided  material 
calls  forth  a  many-sided  judgment,  how  the  charm 
of  change  ends  in  preference  for  the  best,  so  that 
the  boy,  who  perhaps  feels  himself  a  step  or  two 
higher  in  moral  judgment  than  the  hero  or  the 
author,  will  cling  to  his  view  with  inner  self- 
approbation,  and  so  guard  himself  from  a  coarse- 
ness he  already  feels  beneath  him.  The  story 
must  have  one  more  characteristic,  if  its  effect  is 
to  be  lasting  and  emphatic,  —  it  must  carry  on  its 
face  the  strongest  and  clearest  stamp  of  human 
greatness.  For  a  boy  distinguishes  the  common 
and  ordinary  from  the  praiseworthy  as  well  as  we ; 
he  even  has  this  distinction  more  at  heart  than 
we  have,  for  he  does  not  like  to  feel  himself  small; 
he  wishes  to  be  a  man.  The  whole  look  of  a 
well-trained  boy  is  directed  above  himself,  and 
when  eight  years  old  his  entire  line  of  vision 
extends  beyond  all  histories  of  children.  Present 
to  the  boy,  therefore,  such  men  as  he  himself 
would  like  to  be." 

President  G.  Stanley  Hall  says  in  his  mono- 
graph on  Reading,  "  wide  ranges  of  words,  tropes, 
and  especially  of  styles,  ideas,  etc.,  should  be 
included.  If  we  would  give  children  a  good 
vocabulary  of  these  of  their  own,  which  they  can 
command  and  use,  which  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  being  able  to  understand,  this  work  can 
hardly  begin  too  early." 


THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN         \  \ 

"  The  child  before  eight  is  interested  in  vivid 
language,"  says  Isabel  Lawrence  of  the  Minne- 
sota normal  school;  "he  cares  for  action,  for 
color  and  sense,  for  the  marvellous  and  the  impos- 
sible; hence  he  revels  in  myth  and  fairy  tale. 
Rhythm  attracts  him.  Even  his  prose  stories 
should  '  run  in  the  ears  like  the  noise  of  breakers.' 
From  eight  to  fourteen  the  boy  reads  invention 
and  travel,  to  find  out  how  things  are  done. 
Give  him  this  sort  of  incident  in  good  literature 
where  it  embodies  truth  and  thought,  and  he  will 
soon  reject  worthless  stuff  of  his  own  accord." 

To  quote  again  Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall :  "  Many 
boys  enter  college  who  have  never  read  a  book 
through  except  cheap  novels.  On  the  other  hand, 
no  one  commends  a  bookish  child.  But  worse 
than  either  is  the  child  whose  brain  is  saturated 
with  low  or  cheap  reading,  and  is  altogether  illit- 
erate for  all  in  print  that  makes  the  ability  to  read 
desirable.  In  the  selection  of  school  reading  the 
children's  votes  should  be  carefully  taken,  though 
not  always  as  final.  Of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  Boston  schoolboys  of  thirteen  years  old,  who 
were  asked  what  book  first  fascinated  them, 
"  Robinson  Crusoe,"  "  Mother  Goose,"  "  Jack,  the 
Giant  Killer,"  were  mentioned  in  that  order  of 
preference  by  the  great  majority,  and  might  more 
readily  be  allowed  young  children  than  most 
others  named.  "Cinderella,"  "Jack  and  the 


12          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR    CHILDREN 


Beanstalk,"  "  Tom  Thumb,"  "  Gulliver,"  " 
"Red  Riding  Hood,"  "Arabian  Nights,"  which 
came  next,  are  unexceptionable,  and  should  be 
told  every  child  who  has  not  heard  them  before 
coming  to  school." 

A  writer  in  the  Chicago  Course  of  Study  says 
"  If  stories  are  taken  out  of  child-life,  it  will  be 
crippled  and  deprived  of  that  which  is  necessary 
for  subsequent  healthy  growth." 

"  It  is  well  to  remember,"  writes  Katharine 
Hamer  Shute  of  the  Boston  normal  school,  "  that 
a  taste  for  good  literature  is  never  established 
through  an  acquaintance  with  second  and  third 
rate  literature  only;  and  it  is  equally  important 
to  realize  that  uninteresting,  prosy,  burdensome 
lessons  in  £ood  literature  will  not  establish  a 

o 

love  for  it."  And  in  this  connection  Horace 
E.  Scudder  also  said  that  "  the  best  way  to 
give  the  best  of  literature  to  the  child  is  to  share 
it  with  him.  Books  written  for  children  are 
notably  short  lived."  A  recent  writer  in  Mun- 
seys  Magazine  likewise  remarks  that  "  unhappy  is 
that  child  whose  mind  has  been  fed  on  the  milk 
and  water  of  children's  books,  generally  written 
by  mediocre  writers,  when  the  brilliant,  vivid, 
simple  work  of  the  masters  lies  dust  collecting  in 
the  library."  And  to  quote  Professor  A.  S.  Cook 
of  Yale  :  "  The  proper  sort  of  grown-up  literature 
is  the  best  literature  for  the  child.  The  effort  to 


THE  RIGHT  READING   FOR   CHILDREN          13 

comprehend  something  which  interests  us,  but  to 
which  our  mental  grasp  is  not  yet  equal,  is  one  of 
the  most  valuable  means  of  education."  And  in 
like  manner  Sir  Walter  Scott  wrote :  "  Children 
desire  impulses  of  a  powerful  and  important  kind 
from  hearing  things  that  they  cannot  entirely 
comprehend.  It  is  a  mistake  to  write  down  to 
their  understanding.  Set  them  on  the  scent  and 
let  them  puzzle  it  out." 

"  Fiction  for  the  adolescent,"  writes  Miss 
Josephine  Norval  of  the  Chillicothe  high  school, 
"should  stimulate,  instruct,  and  form  vigorous,  un- 
tainted conceptions  of  life.  Its  legitimate  end  is 
threefold,  —  to  please,  to  instruct,  and  to  ennoble. 
It  should  foster  healthy  ambition,  fill  the  mind 
with  sympathy  and  tenderness  for  misfortune, 
and  with  admiration  for  brave  deeds.  Men  and 
women  live  wrongly  when  they  read  wrongly." 

Mr.  W.  L.  Steele,  superintendent  of  schools 
at  Galesburg,  Illinois,  says,  "  When  a  child  has 
acquired  the  reading  habit,  it  is  only  a  question 
of  time  when  he  will  become  an  intelligent 
citizen;"  and  F.  Louis  Soldan  writes,  "Culture 
and  refinement  always  result  from  the  faithful 
study  of  the  masterpieces  of  literature." 

Professor  Richard  Burton  said  in  the  North 
American  Review,  "  A  piece  of  literature  is  an 
organism  and  should,  therefore,  be  put  before  the 
scholar,  no  matter  how  young,  with  its  head  on 


14          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

and  standing  on  both  feet."  And  finally  Professor 
Charles  Eliot  Norton  sums  up  the  whole  matter 
by  saying :  "  A  taste  for  good  reading  is  an  acqui- 
sition the  worth  of  which  is  hardly  to  be  over- 
estimated; and  yet  a  majority  of  children,  even  of 
those  favored  by  circumstance,  grow  up  without 
it.  This  defect  is  due  partly  to  the  'fault  or  igno- 
rance of  parents  and  teachers ;  partly,  also,  to  the 
want,  in  many  cases,  of  the  proper  means  of  culti- 
vation. For  this  taste,  like  most  others,  is  usually 
not  so  much  a  gift  of  nature  as  a  product  of  culti- 
vation. A  wide  difference  exists,  indeed,  in  chil- 
dren in  respect  to  their  natural  inclination  for 
reading,  but  there  are  few  in  whom  it  cannot  be 
more  or  less  developed  by  careful  and  judicious 
training. 

"  This  training  should  begin  very  early.  Even 
before  the  child  has  learned  the  alphabet,  his 
mother's  lullaby  or  his  nurse's  song  may  have 
begun  the  attuning  of  his  ear  to  the  melodies  of 
verse,  and  the  quickening  of  his  mind  with  pleasant 
fancies.  As  he  grows  older,  his  first  reading 
should  be  made  attractive  to  him  by  its  ease  and 
entertainment. 

"  His  very  first  reading  should  mainly  consist  in 
what  may  cultivate  his  ear  for  the  music  of  verse, 
and  may  rouse  his  fancy.  And  to  this  end  noth- 
ing is  better  than  the  rhymes  and  jingles  which 
have  sung  themselves,  generation  after  generation, 


THE  RIGHT  READING   FOR    CHILDREN          15 

in  the  nursery  or  on  the  playground.  '  Mother 
Goose'  is  the  best  primer.  No  matter  if  the 
rhymes  be  nonsense  verses ;  many  a  poet  might 
learn  the  lesson  of  good  versification  from  them, 
and  the  child  in  repeating  them  is  acquiring 
the  accent  of  emphasis  and  of  rhythmical  form. 
Moreover,  the  mere  art  of  reading  is  the  more 
readily  learned  if  the  words  first  presented  to  the 
eye  of  the  child  are  those  which  are  already  famil- 
iar to  his  ear. 

"  The  next  step  is  easy  to  the  short  stories  which 
have  been  told  since  the  world  was  young;  old 
fables  in  which  the  teachings  of  long  experience 
are  embodied,  legends,  fairy  tales,  which  form  the 
traditional  common  stock  of  the  fancies  and  sen- 
timent of  the  race. 

"These  naturally  serve  as  the  gate  of  entrance 
into  the  wide  open  fields  of  literature,  especially 
into  those  of  poetry.  Poetry  is  one  of  the  most 
efficient  means  of  education  of  the  moral  senti- 
ment, as  well  as  of  the  intelligence.  It  is  the 
source  of  the  best  culture.  A  man  may  know  all 
science  and  yet  remain  uneducated.  But  let  him 
truly  possess  himself  of  the  work  of  any  one  of 
the  great  poets,  and  no  matter  what  else  he  may 
fail  to  know,  he  is  not  without  education." 


The  Right   Reading   for  Children  in 
the  School 


"  I  think  that  having  learned  our  letters  we  should  read  the 
best  that  is  in  literature,  and  not  be  forever  repeating  our  a  b 
abs,  and  words  of  one  syllable,  in  the  fourth  or  fifth  classes, 
sitting  on  the  lowest  and  foremost  form  all  our  lives.  .  .  .  We 
learn  to  read  only  as  far  as  Easy  Reading,  the  primers  and 
classbooks,  and  when  we  leave  school,  the  '  Little  Reading,' 
and  story  books,  which  are  for  boys  and  beginners ;  and  our 
reading,  our  conversation,  and  thinking,  are  all  on  a  very  low 
level,  worthy  only  of  pygmies  and  manikins." 

—  "  Walden,"  by  THOREAU,  written  in  1843. 


"  God  be  thanked  for  books.  They  are  the  voices  of  the 
distant  and  the  dead  and  make  us  heirs  to  the  spiritual  life  of 
past  ages.  No  matter  how  poor  I  am,  no  matter  tho'  the  pros- 
perous of  my  own  time  will  not  enter  my  obscure  dwelling  — 
if  Milton  will  cross  my  threshold  to  sing  to  me  of  Paradise, 
and  Shakespeare  open  to  me  the  worlds  of  imagination  and 
the  workings  of  the  human  heart,  and  Franklin  enrich  me  with 
his  practical  wisdom  —  I  shall  not  pine  for  want  of  intellectual 
companionship,  and  I  may  become  a  cultivated  man  tho'  ex- 
cluded from  what  is  called  the  best  society  in  the  place  where 
I  live."  —  WILLIAM  E.  CHANNING. 


The   Right   Reading   for  Children  in 
the   School 

DR.  W.  T.  HARRIS  says  that  "supplementary 
reading  should  rather  be  a  systematic  course  of 
reading  that  the  pupil  pursues  by  himself  and  out 
of  school  hours.  .  .  .  There  is  no  other  way  to 
gain  a  command  of  good  language  than  to  become 
familiar  with  the  best  authors.  ...  If  a  begin- 
ning is  made  with  literature  sufficiently  childish 
to  interest  the  pupils,  they  may  be  led  by  their 
own  growing  taste  and  capacity.  Far  more  im- 
portant is  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  gained 
by  the  pupil  from  literature.  For  literature  is  the 
special  storehouse  of  the  experience  of  the  race 
concerning  itself.  Genius  has  recorded  in  the 
happiest  and  most  splendid  manner  its  insights 
into  the  thoughts,  feelings,  and  deeds  of  mankind, 
and  each  individual  may  there  find  lessons  that 
he  may  learn  without  paying  for  them  the  price 
of  pain  and  suffering  necessary  to  purchase  the 
original  experience.  Man  suffers  vicariously  for 
man,  and  literature  is  the  revelation  of  such 
suffering  and  the  wisdom  that  has  come  from 
it  to  the  race." 

19 


20          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

"  The  books  chosen  for  supplementary  read- 
ing," says  Professor  Albert  S.  Cook,  "  must  be  pure 
and  wholesomely  stimulating.  Stimulating,  since 
otherwise  they  will  not  be  read  with  zest ;  whole- 
somely stimulating,  otherwise  they  leave  the  mind 
worse  than  they  found  it ;  pure,  because  there  are 
foundations  enough  of  impurity,  without  intro- 
ducing new  ones  into  the  school  curriculum.  It 
must  not  be  an  '  adapted '  literature,  studiously 
brought  down  to  the  apprehension  of  children. 
The  extracts  chosen  must  be  complete  in  them- 
selves, at  least  as  works  of  literary  art.%  If  anno- 
tations are  provided,  they  must  be  few,  brief,  and 
confined  to  essential  matters." 

Eben  H.  Davis,  in  "  Common  School  Educa- 
tion," writes :  "  Children  instinctively  take  pleas- 
ure in  verse,  especially  in  rhyme.  Their  delight 
in  Mother  Goose  melodies,  even  before  they 
are  able  to  talk,  is  very  manifest.  Rhyme  and 
rhythm,  even  if  without  sense,  please  their  natu- 
ral musical  taste." 

Miss  Sarah  Louise  Arnold  writes :  "  Learn 
what  the  children  like  and  begin  with  their  likes. 
The  field  of  literature  is  well  suited  to  the  chil- 
dren. The  best  of  literature  is  that  which  was 
written  for  the  children  of  the  world.  It  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  if  we  would  teach  the  child 
to  like  that  which  is  good  in  reading,  we  must 
establish  the  liking  in  his  early  years.  It  is  not 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  21 

enough  that  we  shall  tell  him  in  later  days 
that  certain  books  are  good  and  bid  him  to 
read  them.  When  he  is  grown  up  he  will  choose 
that  which  he  likes,  and  our  work  is  to  lead  him 
to  like  good  things.  We  cannot,  then,  begin 
too  early.  The  very  cradle  songs  should  be 
wisely  chosen.  The  nursery  tales  should  be 
those  which  have  fed  the  children  of  many  an 
age  and  clime." 

Mr.  H.  B.  Hayden,  superintendent  of  schools 
of  Rock  Island,  Illinois,  says :  "  Children,  when 
they  first  enter  the  public  schools,  are  not  too 
young  to  appreciate  the  beautiful  in  literature, 
the  story  of  which  comes  to  them  from  the  lips  of 
their  teacher.  As  soon  as  they  can  read  simple, 
connected  stories  they  should  be  permitted  to  read 
and  enjoy  those  gems  of  child  literature  in  which 
our  supplementary  reading  abounds.  Selected 
with  care  and  used  with  skill  and  system,  the 
supplementary  reading  prepared  for  schools  may 
be  made  a  tremendous  agency  for  stimulating  the 
child's  interest,  and  awakening  a  love  for  pure 
and  helpful  reading." 

"  The  German  popular  fairy  tales,"  says  Lange 
in  his  "Treatise  on  Apperception,"  "have  rightly 
found  an  abiding  place  in  school  instruction. 
They  have  great  national  educational  value,  since 
they  reflect  the  thoughts  and  feelings,  the  naive 
view  of  creation  characteristic  of  the  youthful 


22  THE  RIGHT  READING   FOR   CHILDREN 

period  of  our  people,  and  since  they  disclose  the 
noblest  traits  in  the  souls  of  the  people,  —  fidelity 
and  moral  purity.  Above  all  they  are  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  child's  way  of  looking  at  things, — 
his  yearnings  and  feelings.  .  .  . 

"  The  fairy  tale  is  followed  by  the  heroic  saga. 
Their  gigantic  figures  still  live  on  in  the  mouth 
and  heart  of  the  people,  expressing  their  own 
strong  points  and  weaknesses  with  especial  vivid- 
ness. Since  the  saga  treads  earthly  ways  more 
than  the  fairy  tale,  and  turns  with  preference  to 
human  figures  and  deeds,  as  it  connects  its  tales 
with  definite  persons  and  places,  and  not  seldom 
mingles  with  these  some  real  historical  facts,  so 
it  forms  the  natural  transition  from  the  fairy  tale 
to  history;  it  carries  over  the  imaginative  view 
of  the  world  characteristic  of  the  child  into  the 
rational.  .  .  .  Why  can  excellent  and  favorable 
books  much  more  surely  initiate  into  the  secrets 
of  a  good  style  than  a  hundred  well  established 
paragraphs  from  a  book  on  style?  Because  the 
content  and  form  of  speech  stand  in  the  closest 
relation  to  each  other,  and  the  former  cannot  be 
given  without  the  latter." 

"  Thus  do  the  fairy  tales,"  says  Professor  Ziller, 
"  which  are  at  the  same  time  classic  materials,  to 
which  old  and  young  live  to  return,  lead  from 
the  most  individual  ideas,  from  which  everything 
must  grow  that  is  to  become  strong,  to  the  most 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  23 

general,  which  belongs  to  man  as  such.  They 
serve  in  their  sphere  both  the  child  nature  and 
the  highest  purpose  of  education." 

Touching  the  moral  value  of  the  fairy  tale,  Dr. 
Rein,  of  Jena,  says :  "  The  genuine  fairy  tale  always 
represents,  in  the  play  of  the  imagination,  a  deep 
moral  content;  for  its  root  is  the  poetic  side  of 
the  mind,  which  clothes  a  higher  truth  in  visible 
shapes  and  delivers  it  in  the  form  of  a  story. 
The  fairy  tale  adds  a  multitude  of  ethical  con- 
cepts, which  lead  beyond  the  sphere  of  the  imag- 
ination. Without  encouraging  any  over-hasty 
moralizing,  there  is  offered  abundant  opportunity 
to  awaken  the  ethical  judgment,  that  basis  of  all 
ethical  evaluation,  —  to  develop  it  and  to  deduce 
maxims  from  it.  Ethical  ideas  are  the  principal 
components  of  fairy  tales.  Upon  these  rests  the 
purity  that  is  the  characteristic  of  innocent  child 
nature.  In  this  ethical  attraction  the  principal 
reason  is  to  be  found  why  the  child  experiences 
such  a  deep  satisfaction  in  the  fairy  tale,  why  he 
manifests  such  an  easy  and  certain  comprehension 
of  it,  why  he  feels  such  a  lively  desire  for  it.  The 
most  simple  and  the  most  elementary  notions  in 
ethical  matters  are  laid  down  in  the  fairy  tales. 
But  this  simplicity  facilitates  the  comprehension ; 
the  judgment  is  clear  and  undoubted.  To  the 
ethical  notions  are  now  added  a  large  number  of 
ideas  of  another  sort,  which  are  objectively  com- 


24  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

prehensible.  For  fairy  tales,  though  in  many 
respects  remote  from  reality,  yet  stand  in  close 
touch  with  the  ordinary  relations  of  life." 

Miss  Adeline  Knapp  says :  "  It  is  very  desirable 
that  the  earliest  literature  brought  to  a  child's 
mind  should  be  of  a  sort  to  stimulate  the  imagin- 
ation and  to  call  out  the  judgment.  Nothing  is 
better  adapted  to  do  this  than  the  fairy  tale,  with 
its  poetic  narrations  and  fancies,  and  its  direct 
appeal  to  the  young  judgment  as  to  the  right  or 
the  wrong,  the  wisdom  or  the  folly,  of  the  acts 
recounted." 

We  quote  the  following  from  Miss  Mary  A. 
Laing's  "  Reading ;  a  Manual  for  Teachers "  : 
"  As  soon  as  possible  material  drawn  from  liter- 
ature should  be  introduced.  Stories  from  folk- 
lore, fairy  tales,  rhymes,  and  legends  that  have 
become  children's  classics  should  find  their  place 
in  the  reading  hour.  The  range  of  this  material 
widens  so  rapidly  that  like  Philip  Gilbert  Hamer- 
ton's  good  reader,  the  secret  of  successful  choice 
is  in  knowing  how  to  skip  judiciously." 

Clark  Wissler,  writing  on  the  interest  of  chil- 
dren in  the  reading  work  of  elementary  schools, 
says:  "  The  long  story  is  better  remembered  than 
the  short  one,  and  also  those  stories  that  are  in 
terms  of  experience  that  the  child  can  realize  him- 
self are  the  most  natural  and  lifelike.  .  .  .  Young 
children  are  interested  only  in  the  rhythm  of  verses 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  2$ 

as  found  in  rhymes  of  the  Mother  Goose  type,  and 
real  poetry  wins  little  recognition  before  the  ado- 
lescent period.  Up  to  that  time  poems  of  senti- 
ment and  thought  are  ignored  for  those  of  action 
and  rhythm." 

According  to  Gail  Hamilton  Waid,  "Since 
children  are  susceptible  to  all  the  influences  that 
surround  them,  they  should  have  at  the  very  begin- 
ning of  their  education  our  best  literature  at  their 
disposal ;  and,  since  the  main  object  of  literature 
teaching  is  character  building,  soul  development, 
ethical  culture,  —  call  it  what  you  may,  —  litera- 
ture should  hold  a  more  prominent  place  than  any 
other  subject  in  the  curriculum  of  our  elementary 
schools." 

Again,  "  The  range  of  true  classics  widens  with 
the  child's  growing  power  and  interest,"  says  Miss 
Mary  E.  Laing  in  her  "  Reading ;  a  Manual  for 
Teachers."  "  Begin  as  soon  as  possible  to  put 
whole  texts  of  best  things  in  literature  into  the 
reading  class.  Our  reading  books,  made  up  of 
fragments,  have  helped  to  develop  a  taste  for 
scrappy  reading,  just  as  they  have  signally  failed 
to  awaken  genuine  interest  in  good  literature." 

The  superintendent  of  schools  of  Madison, 
Wisconsin,  writes :  "  Believing  that  it  is  much 
more  profitable  to  study  continuous  selections 
from  our  best  authors  than  to  spend  time  in 
reading  commonplace  pieces  from  a  reader,  our 


26  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

aim  is  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  children  early 
in  their  school  course  some  of  the  best  books  of 
standard  authors.  In  this  way  we  hope  not  only 
to  give  the  children  an  insight  into  the  most 
interesting  and  wholesome  literature,  but  to  en- 
courage the  formation  of  home  libraries." 

The  American  Journal  of  Education  says: 
"  The  teacher  has  more  to  do  with  children's 
reading  than  most  teachers  are  aware.  It  is  a 
high  royal  privilege  to  be  consulted  about  a 
child's  reading,  and  it  is  one  that  should  never 
be  abused." 

Samuel  Thurber,  writing  in  the  School  Review, 
says:  "  The  first  duty  of  the  teacher  of  literature 
is,  therefore,  to  see  that  his  pupils  have  abundant 
opportunities  to  read  good  books.  Reading  must 
begin  early  and  must  never  cease.  The  essential 
thing  to  aim  at  is  the  acquisition  of  a  store  of 
memorable  reading.  The  teacher  must  know 
what  the  good  books  are,  and  must  perpetually 
watch  to  assure  himself  that  the  books  he  recom- 
mends are  really  taking  vital  hold  on  minds." 

Principal  W.  D.  Lewis  says  that  "  the  child 
can  acquire  only  from  the  study  of  literature  that 
nice  sense  of  the  connotation  of  words  which 
marks  the  man  of  culture.  The  different  shades 
of  meaning  of  the  same  word,  and  a  discriminat- 
ing sense  of  the  meaning  of  synonyms,  can  be 
gained  only  from  such  study.  For  purposes  of 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  2/ 

ordinary  definition  the  dictionary  makers  have 
been  obliged  to  draw  widely  upon  literature  to 
make  clear  various  uses  and  meanings.  Child- 
hood is  the  language  period,  and  the  child  who 
lacks  the  formative  influence  of  literature  in  the 
grammar  school  misses  the  greatest  cultural 
power  that  can  ever  be  brought  upon  his  speech. 
The  work  in  literature  should  be  of  two  kinds,  — 
that  which  is  done  in  school  with  the  aid  of  the 
teacher,  and  that  which  is  done  at  home  under 
her  guidance.  It  goes  without  saying  that  pupils 
can  read  more  difficult  matter  with  the  explana- 
tions of  the  teacher  than  alone.  Classes,  there- 
fore, should  be  supplied  with  sets  of  books 
containing  the  works  of  the  standard  authors, 
both  in  the  form  of  selections,  like  the  two 
series  hereafter  recommended  .  .  .  and  complete 
editions  of  great  pieces  of  literature,  like  '  Rob- 
inson Crusoe,'  which  are  especially  adapted  to 
children." 

Mr.  L.  A.  Griffith,  the  superintendent  of  the 
Danville  public  schools  says:  "In  the  interme- 
diate and  grammar  grades  we  must  lead  the  pupil 
to  an  enjoyment  of  his  reading ;  help  him  to  see 
the  beauty  in  the  literature  he  reads ;  encourage 
him  to  read  much  at  home ;  encourage  him  to 
read  much  aloud;  only  in  much  reading  will 
he  acquire  fluency." 

"  When  teachers  of  advanced  pupils  realize  the 


28  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

full  content  of  the  word  reading — when  they 
appreciate  that  they  are  placing  within  the  reach 
of  the  boy  that  which  will  be  to  him  a  higher  life 
—  the  time  will  have  gone  by  when  they  will  have 
to  be  urged  to  teach  their  boys  to  read,"  says 
Miss  Edith  A.  Scott,  and  Charles  Pierce  Burton 
remarks  that  "  by  the  exercise  of  a  little  care,  a 
love  of  good  reading  will  be  fostered  in  the  young, 
in  the  possession  of  which  they  will  always  rejoice, 
and  which  will  augur  well  for  the  future  of  the 
race." 

Mr.  E.  B.  Bentley,  superintendent  of  schools  of 
Clinton,  Illinois,  says  that  "the  value  of  supple- 
mentary reading  cannot  be  measured,"  and  the 
superintendent  of  schools  of  Belleville,  Ohio,  has 
"  never  regretted  that  we  put  literature  in  the  place 
of  the  school  readers.  We  are  gradually  finding 
out  by  trial  what  books  are  best  fitted  to  each 
grade.  We  are  also  learning  how  to  teach  and 
direct  the  reading  better;  and  I  hope  we  shall 
be  able  to  bring  our  pupils  under  the  influence 
of  more  good  books  than  we  can  at  present." 

The  superintendent  of  the  Monmouth  public 
school  says,  "  We  need  to  go  on  until  every  school- 
room in  the  city  contains  a  rich  supply  of  supple- 
mentary reading  of  the  choicest  literature." 

The  superintendent  of  schools  of  Oskaloosa 
says :  "  Teachers  are  directed  to  select  from  the 
school  library,  or  their  own  library,  good  books, 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  29 

suitable  for  the  age  of  the  pupils  of  their  grade, 
and  read  in  course  to  their  schools,  giving  at  least 
thirty  minutes  per  week  to  this  reading  of  good 
literature." 

Mr.  H.  M.  Slanson,  superintendent  of  schools 
of  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  says:  "In  these  days 
of  cheap  books  many  of  the  children  will  read 
something.  If  their  selections  are  not  directed 
.  aright,  and  their  tastes  cultivated  and  elevated, 
their  minds  will  be  weakened  and  their  morals 
contaminated.  The  public  school  can  render  no 
single  service  that  will  be  more  beneficial  to  the 
public  than  to  send  out  from  its  doors  boys  and 
girls  who  delight  in  good  literature." 

Mr.  A.  D.  Beecher,  superintendent  of  schools  of 
Norwalk,  Ohio,  says :  "  If  young  men  and  women 
have  formed  a  love  of  good  literature  and  the  habit 
of  intelligent  reading  by  the  time  they  leave  our 
schools,  much  may  be  expected  of  them  in  the 
future  in  improved  scholarship  and  culture.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  no  taste  has  been  formed  in 
this  direction,  very  little  self-improvement  may  be 
expected." 

Principal  Julian  W.  Abernethy,  of  the  Berkeley 
Institute,  Brooklyn,  writes  as  follows :  "  Indeed, 
the  only  logical,  just,  and  wise  position  for  litera- 
ture is  in  every  year,  and  every  grade,  from  the 
bottom  to  the  top  of  the  school  course.  It  must 
not  be  treated  as  a  detached  subject,  with  a 


30  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR  CHILDREN 

definite  beginning  and  end;  literary  training  is 
always  beginning  and  never  ending.  Fortunately 
literature  does  not  have  to  be  diluted,  perverted, 
or  transformed  into  'graded  lessons'  in  order  to 
be  adapted  to  the  different  stages  of  educational 
growth.  From  its  vast  and  varied  resources  may 
be  selected  masterpieces,  complete  and  perfect, 
suitable  for  every  grade  of  the  school.  It  is  to 
be  studied  for  the  spirit  and  tone,  not  for  the 
matter  and  form ;  the  story  for  the  story's  sake, 
the  poem  for  the  poetry's  sake  alone." 

We  quote  once  more  from  Miss  Sarah  Louise 
Arnold,  who,  in  her  book, "  Reading,  How  to  Teach 
It,"  says:  "For  the  sake  of  giving  the  children 
right  ideals,  we  must  place  before  them  the  best  in 
literature,  such  literature  as  will  supply  not  only 
standards  in  language,  but  ideals  in  character. 
Their  experience,  like  ours,  must  be  reenforced 
by  the  teachings  of  others,  —  the  lessons  which 
have  been  treasured  in  books,  —  and  these  lessons 
must  begin  in  childhood.  It  is  a  mistake  to  post- 
pone good  literature  until  the  child  has  mastered 
word  forms  and  the  technique  of  reading.  His 
love  for  the  good  must  exist  before  he  begins  to 
read  at  all,  and  must  be  stimulated  and  strength- 
ened by  means  of  his  reading.  At  the  same  time 
that  he  becomes  master  of  the  mechanics  of  read- 
ing he  should  be  endowed  with  the  desire  to 
choose  that  which  is  good  to  read.  The  work  of 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  31 

the  teacher,  therefore,  is  to  establish  ideals,  to 
quicken  desire,  to  strengthen  right  tendencies,  to 
lead  to  wise  choices.  These  belong  to  the  teach- 
ing of  reading,  and  should  assume  quite  as  impor- 
tant a  place  as  does  the  mastery  of  words  or 
fluency  in  expression." 

Miss  Mae  Lowe,  librarian  of  Circleville,  Ohio, 
says  "  that  the  volumes  which  are  usually  in- 
cluded in  the  category  'Supplementary  Reading 
for  Children '  have  raised  the  standard  of  juvenile 
literature,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  And  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  as  these  little  volumes 
become  better  known  their  use  will  increase 
among  those  who  are  training  children.  And 
as  they  become  more  and  more  used  they  will 
displace  the  sensational  story  book,  which  makes 
for  the  neurotic  novel  of  later  years.  Only  by  the 
substitution  of  good  will  evil  be  driven  out." 

Mr.  Harry  Powell,  formerly  superintendent  at 
Washington,  D.  C,  says :  "  The  school  reading 
should  consist  not  only  of  classics,  but  of  complete 
classics.  We  should  give  the  whole  of  the  story, 
and  not  mere  extracts,  such  as  have  furnished  most 
of  the  contents  of  the  readers  for  the  upper  grades. 
If  the  account  of  Robinson  Crusoe's  shipwreck  is 
interesting,  the  whole  narrative  of  his  life  on  his 
desolate  island  is  much  more  interesting.  If  it 
is  well  for  a  class  to  read  about  the  marriage  of 
Miles  Standish,  it  is  better  for  them  to  read  the 


32  THE  RIGHT  READING   FOR   CHILDREN 

whole  poem.  Complete  classics  should  be  used 
because  they  awaken  and  maintain  a  keener  in- 
terest, and  give  a  deeper  insight  into  the  author's 
thought,  enabling  the  reader  to  follow  the  argu- 
ment, and  furnishing  a  mental  drill  that  can  be 
gotten  from  no  mere  extract.  The  persons  of  the 
story  are  seen  in  greater  fulness,  the  character- 
delineation  is  more  graphic  and  connected,  and 
consequently  the  moral  ideas  appear  in  greater 
strength  and  richness." 

There  should  be  no  doubt  left  in  the  mind  of 
the  reader  of  the  foregoing  statements  on  the 
subjects  of  the  right  reading  for  children  in  the 
school  and  of  "  supplementary  reading,"  from 
those  best  qualified  to  speak  as  to  its  place  and 
value,  of  the  importance  of  the  right  choice  of 
books  for  this  purpose,  and  of  giving  the  chil- 
dren a  wide  scope  of  reading  material. 


The  Right  Reading  for  Children  in 
the  Home 


"  So,  when  my  nurse  comes  in  for  me, 
Home  I  return  across  the  sea, 
And  go  to  bed  with  backward  looks 
At  my  dear  land  of  story-books." 

—  ROBERT  Louis  STEVENSON. 

"  But  the  old  books,  the  old  books,  the  mother  loves  them  best ; 
They  leave  no  bitter  taste  behind  to  haunt  the  youthful  breast : 
They  bid  us  hope,  they  bid  us  fill  our  hearts  with  visions  fair ; 
They  do  not  paralyze  the  will  with  problems  of  despair. 
And  as  they  lift  from  sloth  and  sense  to  follow  loftier  pains, 
And  stir  the  blood  of  indolence  to  bubble  in  the  veins : 
Inheritors  of  mighty  things,  who  own  a  lineage  high, 
We  feel  within  us  budding  wings  that  long  to  reach  the  sky : 
To  rise  above  the  commonplace,  and  through  the  cloud  to  soar, 
And  join  the  loftier  company  of  grander  souls  of  yore. 
Then  as  she  reads  each  magic  scene,  the  firelight  burning  low, 
How  flush  the  cheeks  !  how  quick,  how  keen,  the  heart-beats 

come  and  go  ! 

The  mother's  voice  is  soft  and  sweet,  the  mother's  look  is  kind, 
But  she  has  tones  that  cause  to  beat  all  passions  of  the  mind ; 
And  Alice  weeps,  and  Jack  inspired  rides  forth  a  hero  bold ; 
So  master  passions,  early  fired,  burn  on  when  life  is  cold." 

—  The  Spectator. 


The  Right  Reading  for  Children  in 

the  Home 

\ 

EVERY  teacher  knows  that  the  brightest  and 
aptest  pupils  are,  generally  speaking,  the  children 
who  read  the  best  books  at  home.  Indeed,  what 
the  children  read  out  of  school  is,  perhaps,  more 
important  than  what  they  read  in  school,  for  they 
will  read  of  their  own  choice  the  books  they 
like,  and  the  books  we  like  are  the  books  which 
influence  us.  "  Books,"  as  Bulwer  says,  "  sug- 
gest thoughts,  thoughts  become  motives,  motives 
prompt  to  action.  Man  is  a  complicated  piece  of 
machinery.  Hundreds  of  nerves  and  muscles 
must  act  and  react  for  the  slightest  turn  of  the 
body.  Yet  the  very  wind  of  a  word,  a  casual  hint 
or  association,  can  set  the  whole  in  motion  and 
produce  an  action.  Actions  repeated  form  habits 
and  determine  the  character,  fixed  and  firm  and 
immovable,  for  good  or  for  evil." 

As  soon  as  the  child  has  acquired  the  power  of 
getting  at  the  sense  of  the  printed  page,  the  taste 
for  the  good  or  the  bad  in  literature  may  begin  to 
grow,  and  it  may  do  so  even  while  he  is  acquiring 
this  power.  Then  he  enters  on  the  perilous  path 

35 


36          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

so  well  described  by  Mrs.  Browning  in  "  Aurora 
Leigh  " :  - 

"  To  thrust  his  own  way,  he  an  alien,  through 
The  world  of  books.     The  world  of  books  is  still  the  world. 
The  worldlings  in  it  are  less  merciful  and  more  puissant, 
For  the  wicked  here 

Are  winged  like  angels.     Every  knife  that  strikes 
Is  edged  with  elementary  fire  to  assail  a  spiritual  life." 

Many  of  the  public  libraries  do  a  great  work 
in  guiding  children's  reading,  but  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  parents  need  enlightenment  as  to 
the  right  books  to  place  in  the  way  of  their  boys 
and  girls.  To  direct  parents  how  wisely  to 
choose  the  books  their  children  should  read  is 
a  problem  well  worth  the  attention  of  teachers, 
and  it  is  far  more  important  than  most  people  are 
apt  to  consider  it.  Not  only  are  there  the  vicious 
books  which  children  find  on  the  news-stands,  or 
which  are  brought  to  their  attention  by  other 
means,  but  there  is  a  vast  quantity  of  weak  and 
frivolous  material  not  precisely  or  immediately 
harmful,  perhaps,  but  which  ought  to  give  place 
to  stronger,  sounder,  and  more  healthful  mental 
food. 

The  reading  of  newspapers  and  magazines,  for 
example,  which  are  placed  almost  unreservedly  in 
the  hands  of  children  all  over  the  country,  tends 
to  beget  a  loose  habit  of  mind,  and  to  weaken 
the  power  of  sustained  concentration  in  reading. 


IN  THE  HOME  37 

Many  and  many  a  grown-up  person  has  had  cause 
to  regret  the  hours  of  useless  reading  which  he 
has  frittered  away,  thus  destroying  his  power  of 
getting  at  the  content  of  more  valuable,  serious, 
and  solid  books  with  which,  when  it  is  too  late  to 
do  so  without  enormous  effort,  he  desires  to  make 
himself  familiar. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  realize  the  extent  of 
the  influence  that  indiscriminate  newspaper  and 
novel  reading  has  in  presenting  distorted  views 
of  human  life,  of  human  environment,  and  of 
human  character.  Many  a  boy  and  girl  are  in  a 
constant  state  of  expecting  something  to  turn  up 
which  will  change  their  lives  in  some  wonderful 
way,  after  the  fashion  of  some  story  they  have 
read,  and  they  are  thus  made  more  or  less  unfitted 
for  the  practical  realities  of  life  and  for  the  every- 
day conditions  which  surround  them.  Instead  of 
manfully  obeying  the  old  English  motto,  "  Do  the 
next  thing,"  they  are  always  waiting  for  some 
great  and  unexpected  turn  of  fortune  which  will 
place  them  beyond  their  present  surroundings  in 
some  lofty  imagined  sphere.  As  John  Ruskin 
says,  "  The  best  romance  becomes  dangerous  if 
by  its  excitement  it  renders  the  ordinary  course 
of  life  uninteresting,  and  increases  the  morbid 
thirst  for  scenes  in  which  we  shall  never  be  called 
upon  to  act." 

Few  people  to-day  ever  think  of  opening  the 


38          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

pages  of  Southey's  "  Doctor,"  but  there  is  a  pas- 
sage to  be  found  there  on  the  influence  of  books 
which  is  worthy  of  printing  in  letters  of  gold. 
He  says :  "  Would  you  know  whether  the  ten- 
dency of  a  book  is  good  or  evil,  examine  in  what 
state  of  mind  you  lay  it  down.  If  it  induces  you 
to  suspect  that  what  you  have  been  accustomed 
to  think  unlawful  may  after  all  be  innocent,  and 
that  may  be  harmless  which  you  have  hitherto 
been  taught  to  think  dangerous  ...  if  so  ... 
throw  the  book  into  the  fire,  whatever  name  it 
may  bear  upon  the  title-page.  Throw  it  into  the 
fire,  young  man !  Young  lady,  away  with  the 
whole  set,  although  it  should  be  the  prominent 
feature  in  a  rosewood  bookcase ! " 

Says  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  "  No  greater  good 
can  befall  a  child  than  to  be  born  into  a  home 
where  the  best  books  are  read,  the  best  music 
interpreted,  the  best  talk  enjoyed;  for  in  these 
privileges  the  richest  educational  opportunities 
are  supplied." 

"  A  pure,  sweet-flavored  set  of  children's  books," 
says  Mrs.  Andrea  Hofer,  "ought  to  be  in  every 
growing  household.  They  would  cost  no  more 
than  many  of  our  meaningless  decorations.  The 
nucleus  of  a  child's  library  often  lies  in  one 
good  book,  and  the  addition  of  five  or  ten  each 
year  will  make  a  fine  start  if  they  are  chosen  for 
lasting  quality." 


IN  THE  HOME  39 

And  Walter  Taylor  Field  urges  that  "  every 
child  should  have  his  little  bookcase  in  the  nurs- 
ery, or,  better  yet,  a  shelf  in  the  library  which  he 
may  call  his  own." 

Miss  Katharine  H.  Shute,  of  the  Boston  nor- 
mal school,  says  that  "  values  of  literature  remain 
pure  matters  of  theory  unless  we  arouse  and 
develop  in  our  school  children  so  genuine  an  in- 
terest in  good  reading  that  it  will  outlast  the 
school  days,  will  be  indeed  so  vital  a  part  of  their 
life  that  they  will  turn  to  literature  as  a  matter  of 
course  for  recreation  in  their  leisure,  and  will  carry 
away  from  it,  equally  as  a  matter  of  course,  intelli- 
gence and  inspiration  for  their  work.  The  real 
test  of  interest  lies  in  whether  or  not  the  child 
reads  out  of  school  and  in  what  he  reads." 

"  Teachers  can  do  much  for  their  pupils,"  says 
the  superintendent  of  schools  of  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, "  by  directing  their  work  so  that  they  will 
become  interested  in  reading  good  books  outside 
of  school." 

The  superintendent  of  schools  of  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  says,  "  Create  in  the  mind  of  the  child  a 
desire  to  have  a  library,  small  though  it  will 
necessarily  be  at  first,  and  above  all  to  know 
what  is  contained  between  the  covers  of  each 
book." 

"  Begin  with  a  few  books,"  says  Harper  s  Bazar, 
"  wisely  selected,  then  add  to  these  very  gradually, 


40          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

leaving  the  selection  largely  to  the  carefully  super- 
vised taste  of  the  young  reader.  The  importance 
of  the  choice  of  these  first  books  can  hardly  be 
overestimated." 

Miss  Ida  Meghell,  principal  of  the  Bryant 
School,  Chicago,  Illinois,  says :  "  If  we  could  pro- 
vide plenty  of  good  reading  for  every  family  it 
would  save  a  vast  amount  of  time  and  effort  in 
the  schools'  English  teaching.  If  good  simple 
story  books  of  second  and  third  reader  grade  were 
as  abundant  even  as  the  more  difficult  juvenile 
books,  the  habit  of  reading,  thinking,  and  speak- 
ing in  English  could  be  formed  much  earlier  than 
it  is  now.  But  all  our  efforts  to  push  children 
into  reading  lessons  too  difficult  for  them  kill  the 
desire  to  read." 

"  When  my  boy  comes  home,"  says  C.  S.  Coler, 
"  and  asks  for  a  quarter  to  buy  a  book  to  read 
I  am  pleased.  When  he  saves  his  pennies  and 
buys  it  for  himself  I  am  delighted.  Children 
should  be  encouraged  to  build  up  'libraries'  of 
their  own.  The  teacher  who  can  inspire  her 
children  with  the  love  of  good  books  deserves 
many  marks  placed  to  her  credit." 

Dr.  Herbert  Adams  writes,  "  Surely  the  home 
should  cooperate  with  the  library  by  the  example 
of  the  reading  habit,  and  by  the  direction  of  the 
reading  of  the  children ;  while  it  would  be  an  ex- 
cellent thing  for  parents  to  pursue  lines  of  read- 


IN  THE  HOME  41 

ing  that  would  keep  them  in  touch  with  the  chil- 
dren's studies." 

"  We  cannot  overestimate,"  says  A.  O.  Thomas, 
"the  value  of  an  appreciation  of  good  literature 
as  a  part  of  a  young  person's  equipment  for  life. 
The  world  is  full  of  evil  literature,  the  reading  of 
which  is  contagious,  and  unless  much  care  is  exer- 
cised in  directing  his  reading  the  child  is  liable  to 
go  astray.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  home  is 
the  proper  place  for  the  library,  and  that  the 
parents  are  the  proper  ones  to  supervise  the  read- 
ing therefrom.  But  all  homes  cannot  afford  it ; 
all  parents  are  not  capable,  and  many  are  not  dis- 
posed to  direct  such  work.  Hence,  the  school 
must  do  it.  There  are  many  homes,  however, 
where  such  work  is  successfully  done.  Every 
community  has  its  examples.  The  children  from 
such  homes  are  easily  selected  from  their  mates. 
As  a  rule  their  actions  are  more  refined,  their  per- 
ception keener,  their  judgments  more  mature,  and 
their  progress  more  marked." 

L.  J.  Hall,  of  Jefferson  City,  Missouri,  says : 
"  The  people  generally  seem  to  be  thoroughly  alive 
to  the  importance  of  placing  good,  inspiring  litera- 
ture within  the  reach  of  all  the  boys  and  girls,  and 
are  supporting  cordially  every  movement  in  this 
direction.  The  boy  who  has  the  reading  habit  so 
thoroughly  fixed  that  he  would  rather  read  a  good 
book  after  supper  than  loaf  on  the  streets  is  safe." 


42  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

One  of  the  most  important  matters  which  all 
concerned  in  education  have  to  deal  with,  is  the 
consideration  of  what  can  be  done  to  get  the  best 
books  into  the  hands  of  the  children.  There  can 
be  used  with  immense  power  in  this  connection  a 
threefold  cord  which  will  not  be  easily  broken, 
and  the  strands  which  compose  it  are  the  home, 
the  school,  and  the  library. 

In  the  home  influence  may  be  brought  to  bear 
by  parents  by  wise  selection  of  the  books  which 
their  children  should  read  and  should  buy,  for  it 
is  held  to  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  encour- 
age children  to  buy  their  own  books  at  as  early  a 
date  as  possible.  Every  parent  who  can  afford  it 
should  let  his  children  have  money  to  spend  for 
books,  so  that  they  may  begin  the  formation  of  a 
library  in  their  childhood.  They  would  prize  the 
books  the  more,  and  the  possession  of  books  from 
the  beginning  teaches  children,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  to  love  and  care  for  their  little  library. 
Parents  should  see  to  it  that  they  rouse  the  inter- 
est of  their  children  in  books,  and  keep  it  alive. 
They  should  discuss  books  with  their  children, 
and  acquaint  themselves  with  the  classics  for 
children,  find  out  what  books  their  children  are 
reading  and  read  them  themselves. 


The   Right  Reading  for   Children  in 
the   Library 


"  That  book  is  good 
Which  puts  me  in  a  working  mood. 
Unless  to  Thought  is  added  Will, 
Apollo  is  an  imbecile. 

What  parts,  what  gems,  what  colors  shine,  — 
Ah,  but  I  miss  the  grand  design." 

—  RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

"  W7hen 

We  gloriously  forget  ourselves,  and  plunge 
Soul-forward,  headlong,  into  a  book's  profound, 
Impassioned  for  its  beauty  and  salt  of  truth, — 
'Tis  then  we  get  the  right  good  from  a  book." 

—  ELIZABETH  BARRETT  BROWNING. 


The    Right   Reading  for   Children  in 
the   Library 

BUT  the  best  literature  must  beset  the  child  on 
every  side,  or  he  will  be  tempted  to  stray  to  the 
news-stand  or  will  in  other  ways  get  hold  of  litera- 
ture which  is  injurious  to  him. 

He  must  find  it  not  only  in  the  home  and  in 
the  school,  but  in  the  school  library  and  in  the 
public  library.  The  work  of  choosing  the  books 
for  the  last  named  should  be  done  by  experts  in 
the  evaluation  of  books  for  children,  whose  judg- 
ment none  can  question. 

Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall,  in  his  "  Monograph  on 
Reading,"  says :  "  Every  young  person  should, 
before  leaving  school,  have  experienced  the  charm 
of  freely  ranging  through  a  library  of  solid,  sub- 
stantial books,  and  where  school  libraries  are 
practicable,  its  use  should  not  only  be  as  unre- 
stricted as  possible,  but  plenty  of  school  time 
should  be  devoted  to  the  utilization  of  all  its 
resources.  Children  will  not  voluntarily  dull 
their  wits  by  struggling  with  books  far  above 
them,  and  are  not  harmed  by  what  is  not  under- 
stood, but  often  tumble  rapidly  through  great 

45 


46          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

books,  picking  out  with  strange  facility  what  is  of 
use  to  them,  and  what  no  one  would  ever  dream 
of  suggesting  to  them." 

Colonel  Francis  W.  Parker  says  that  "  the  sup- 
plementary reading  movement  has  been  the  most 
widespread  and  most  efficient  of  any  movement 
ever  started  in  this  country.  It  reached  the  libra- 
ries, and  countless  school  boards  took  it  up.  It 
started  the  idea  of  travelling  libraries  so  prevalent 
in  the  West.  It  created  a  great  demand  for  bet- 
ter reading." 

"  Show  the  parents  the  practical  value  of  a 
library  in  school  work  and  you  can  undoubtedly 
secure  their  cooperation  in  the  securing  of  it," 
writes  D.  Cleveland  of  South  Haven. 

"  Every  country  school,  as  well  as  village  school, 
should  and  can  have  a  library,"  says  D.  C.  Arnold, 
of  Elk  Garden,  West  Virginia. 

L.  J.  Hall,  of  Jefferson  City,  Iowa,  has  said  that 
"  there  is  nothing  that  contributes  so  much  as 
reading  toward  giving  direction  and  purpose 
to  the  life  of  youth.  Well-selected,  well-managed 
libraries  are  among  our  very  best  educational 
instrumentalities.  It  is  hoped  that  every  teacher, 
school  officer,  and  patron  will  put  forth  an  earnest 
effort  to  procure  some  of  these  good  books  for 
the  children." 

The  School  Journal  says:  "  Nothing,  of  course, 
can  take  the  place  of  the  library  in  the  home,  but 


IN  THE  LIBRARY  47 

there  is  a  very  good  substitute  in  the  school 
library.  To  the  children  of  homes  where  poverty 
or  gross  materialism  reigns,  these  school  collec- 
tions offer  a  unique  means  for  wider  interests, 
finer  culture.  They  stand  in  a  measure  in  loco 
parentis,  teaching  the  child  through  what  means 
great  and  good  men  have  become  good  and  great ; 
how  honesty,  purity,  gentleness,  and  temperance 
sweeten  and  glorify  a  life." 

Miss  Mary  A.  Laing,  in  her  "  Reading;  a 
Manual  for  Teachers,"  writes :  "  Every  schoolroom 
should  have  its  own  little  collection  of  choice 
books  adapted  to  the  stage  of  development  of  the 
children,  and  in  the  periods  of  leisure  before 
school,  after  school,  at  the  rainy-day  recess,  or  in 
the  leisure  moments  of  finished  lessons,  the  chil- 
dren should  be  allowed  to  use  these  books  freely. 
We  should  remember  that  the  average  home 
represented  by  the  children  in  the  public  schools 
has  a  meagre  stock  of  best  books  for  children ; 
and  we  should  remember,  too,  that  the  public 
library  does  not  as  a  rule  provide  for  the  needs  of 
young  children,  nor  does  it  attempt  to  form  the 
taste  of  any  child." 

Mr.  Orvis  King,  superintendent  of  public  in- 
struction, Carson  City,  Nebraska,  says:  "  It  appears 
to  me  that  the  legislature  should  take  some  steps 
to  provide  libraries  for  the  schools ;  that  a  law 
should  be  enacted  authorizing  and  compelling 


48          THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

districts  to  use  a  certain  portion  of  their  annual 
appropriation  from  the  county  fund  in  establish- 
ing and  maintaining  school  libraries.  The  stu- 
dent has  a  deeper  and  livelier  interest  in  his 
studies,  and  a  taste  for  good  reading  is  aroused, 
and  a  gentleness  and  refinement,  which  comes 
from  contact  with  best  thoughts,  pervades  the 
schoolroom,  better  attendance  is  assured,  and  a 
desire  for  a  higher  and  broader  education  results, 
and  thus  better  citizenship  is  vouchsafed." 

Superintendent  A.  W.  Miles,  of  Crawfordsville, 
Indiana,  says :  "  Communities  are  reformed  by 
proper  formation  of  their  children.  All  culture 
tendencies  have  their  beginnings  in  childhood. 
Standards  of  taste  and  intelligence  are  formed  in 
the  growing  generation.  It  is  in  promoting  right 
literary  beginnings  in  children  at  school  that  the 
librarian  most  surely  controls  later  cultural  con- 
ditions. The  library  must  also  encourage  mas- 
terly study  by  facilitating  research  in  all  lines  of 
school  work.  And  it  must  see  that  pupils  are 
taught  how  to  use  books.  If  the  use  of  the  library 
is  made  a  vital  feature  of  their  school  life  it  cer- 
tainly will  continue  necessary  to  them  after  they 
have  gone  from  the  class-room." 

Superintendent  W.  H.  Cole  of  Huntington, 
West  Virginia,  says :  "  Many  a  child  who  would 
never  think  of  visiting  a  public  library  for  the 
purpose  of  drawing  books  to  read,  might  be  in- 


IN  THE  LIBRARY  49 

duced  to  read  books  if  they  were  brought  into  his 
immediate  presence  and  his  attention  called  to 
them.  By  having  a  judiciously  selected  library 
in  the  schoolroom,  and  by  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  contents  of  the  books,  the  teacher  may 
suggest  to  pupils  how  to  read  them,  what  to  look 
for.  Were  I  to  pray  for  a  taste  which  should 
stand  me  in  stead,  under  every  variety  of  circum- 
stance, and  be  a  source  of  happiness  and  cheer- 
fulness to  me  during  life,  and  a  shield  against  its 
ills,  however  things  might  go  amiss  and  the  world 
frown  upon  us,  it  would  be  a  taste  for  reading. 
Give,  a  man  this  taste  and  the  means  of  gratifying 
it,  and  you  can  hardly  fail  of  making  him  a  happy 
man;  unless,  indeed,  you  put  into  his  hands  a 
most  perverse  selection  of  books.  You  place  him 
in  contact  with  the  best  society  in  every  period  of 
history  —  with  the  wisest,  the  wittiest,  the  ten- 
derest,  the  bravest,  and  the  purest  characters  who 
have  adorned  humanity.  You  make  him  a  deni- 
zen of  all  sections,  a  contemporary  of  all  ages. 
The  world  has  been  created  for  him." 


It  is  very  evident  from  the  paper  read  by  Miss 
C.  Hewins,  of  the  Hartford  Public  Library,  at  the 
Waukesha  Conference  of  Librarians  in  July,  1901, 
on  the  subject  of  the  practical  value  to  children's 
librarians  of  book  reviews,  lists  and  articles  in 


50  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN' 

newspapers,  and  from  the  discussions  that  ensued, 
that  they  are  held  of  little  account  by  librarians 
and  are  practically  useless  to  them  in  their  work 
of  selection  because  the  critics  to  whom  the  books 
are  intrusted  for  review,  have,  as  a  rule,  no  special 
fitness  for  their  task.  And  it  was  made  very 
clear  also  that  librarians,  teachers,  and  parents 
needed  some  other  guidance  and  counsel  in  the 
selection  of  books  for  children. 

Hence  we  have  brought  together  in  these  pages 
a  body  of  opinions,  put  forward  by  prominent  edu- 
cators and  others  interested  in  the  welfare  of  youth, 
which,  it  is  hoped,  may  serve  in  some  measure  as 
a  guide  to  those  who  are  seeking  the  principles 
which  should  underlie  the  selection  of  the  right 
reading  for  children  ;  and,  in  accordance  with  these 
sentiments,  which  those  who  have  to  do  with  chil- 
dren will  endorse,  we  have  caused  to  be  selected 
and  edited  by  well-known  judges  and  writers  over 
one  hundred  books  for  children,  for  school,  home, 
and  library,  —  books  which  we  have  classified  for 
children  of  all  ages,  —  of  which  the  opinions 
printed  at  the  end  of  the  list,  among  others,  have 
already  been  received.  Except  the  books  for 
teaching  the  child  to  read,  and  a  few  others,  this 
list  is  made  up  of  complete  works  chosen  from  the 
world's  best  literature.  In  making  the  selection 
we  have  not  relied  upon  our  own  choice,  nor  on 
that  of  one  editor  alone,  but  to  this  task  we  have 


IN  THE  LIBRARY  51 

brought  the  ripe  wisdom  and  judgment  of  more 
than  three  hundred  men  and  women  actively  con- 
nected with  education  or  otherwise  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  the  young  and  their  reading.  These 
experts,  including  the  best  known  people  in  the 
educational  and  literary  world,  have  voted  on  a 
carefully  prepared  list  of  several  hundred  books 
suitable  for  children  and  these  books  represent 
the  first  choice  of  these  advisers.  The  classified 
list  of  books  will  be  found  on  pages  53  et  seq. 

All  of  the  books  in  this  classified  graded  list  may  be 
had  of  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  New  York,  and 
Chicago,  at  the  prices  quoted. 


BOOKS  FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

Should   be   carefully    selected   by   qualified 

persons. 
Should  be  literature,  not  simply  "  reading 

matter." 

Should  not  be  mere  compilations  or  extracts. 
Should  be  interesting. 
Should  not  be  chosen  to  point  morals  but 

should  nevertheless  lead  in  moral  direc- 
tion. 
Should  be  provided  in  ample  variety,  to  suit 

all  tastes  and  all  ages. 
Should  give  education  in  literature,  and  foster 

a  taste  for  good  reading ;  and  thus 
Should  include,  not  only  the  classics  written 

for  children,  but  many  of  the  interesting 

masterpieces  of  literature  for  adults. 
Should  have   illustrations   which  illustrate 

and   elucidate   the   text,  and  not  simply 

adorn  the  volume. 
Should  be  printed    in    type  which  can   be 

easily  read,  in  lines  not  long  enough  to 

fatigue  the  eye. 

Should  not  be  so  heavy  as  to  tire  the  child. 
Should  be  bound  strongly  and  serviceably, 

and  open  easily. 
All  these  requirements  are  met  in  the  books 

in  the  following  list :  — 


The  Right  Reading  for  Children 
of  All   Ages 


FIRST   AND   SECOND   YEARS 

Books  from  which  to  teach  the  child  to  read  and  for  the 
children's  own  first  reading,  including  the  nursery  rhymes 
which  will  cultivate  the  ear  for  the  music  of  verse,  and 
the  fables,  legends,  and  fairy  tales,  which  form  the  common 
stock  of  the  fancies  and  sentiments  of  the  race. 

The  Beginner's  Reader 

By  FLORENCE  BASS,  author  of  "  Plant  Life  "  and  "  Animal  Life."    Boards. 
Fully  illustrated  with  many  colored  pictures.     118  pages         .     25  cents. 

The  interest  of  children  is  at  once  awakened  by  this  little 
book.  It  begins  with  nature  study  and  tells  about  little  people 
of  other  countries.  A  great  number  of  easy  lessons  is  given, 
the  same  words  are  repeated  many  times,  and  but  few  new 
words  are  introduced  into  each  lesson. 

An   Illustrated  Primer 

•  By   SARAH   FULLER,   Principal   of  the   Horace   Mann   School,   Boston. 
Boards.     103  pages 25  cents. 

This  primer  presents  the  "  word  method  "  in  a  form  attrac- 
tive to  little  children.  The  unique  illustrations  of  words  and 
sentences  will  be  found  a  great  help  in  teaching  correct  pronun- 
ciation. The  book  is  especially  suited  to  the  needs  of  evening 
schools,  and  to  pupils  who  do  not  speak  English  as  their  mother- 
tongue. 

53 


54  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

A   Primer 

By  ANNA  B.  BADLAM.     Boards.     Illustrated.     131  pages        .    25  cents. 

Simplicity,  variety,  and  gradual  development  are  noteworthy 
features.  Skilful  use  is  made  of  phonics  in  the  vocabulary  exer- 
cises. Word  coloring  and  sentence  building  are  especially  em- 
phasized. 

A  Primer  of  Work  and  Play 

By  EDITH  GOODYEAR  ALGER.     Cloth.     128  pages.     Illustrated  in  col- 
ors   30  cents. 

A  very  attractive  primer  containing  over  100  pages  of  reading 
with  small  vocabulary,  all  new  words  given  at  the  beginning  of 
lessons,  and  short  sentences  throughout.  The  lessons  have  a 
definite  aim  and  are  on  subjects  interesting  to  all  children. 
Although  beautifully  illustrated,  it  is  distinctively  a  reading-book 
and  not  a  picture-book.  It  combines  thoroughly  sound  pedagogy 
with  new  and  original  features. 

Lessons  for  Little  Readers 

By  E.  G.  REGAL.     Cloth.     Illustrated  in  colors.     120  pages.     30  cents. 

This  book  presents  a  unique  and  practical  series  of  lessons 
that  have  grown  out  of  the  experience  of  a  remarkably  success- 
ful teacher.  The  great  variety  of  material  used  is  correlated, 
and  affords  scope  for  imagination  and  for  independent  obser- 
vation. The  book  also  provides  ample  drill  in  sentence  forms 
without  monotony.  Seat  work  in  connection  with  language, 
number,  color,  and  drawing,  and  also  appropriate  and  pleasing 
songs  are  features. 

Glimpses  of  Nature  for  Little  Folks 

By  K.  A.  GRIEL,  State  Normal   School,  California,  Pa.     Boards.     109 
pages 30  cents. 

This  book  appeals  directly  to  child  interests  and  is  suggestive 
of  light  and  life  and  beauty.  The  text  is  splendidly  illustrated, 
many  of  the  pictures  being  in  colors. 


FIRST  AND  SECOND   YEARS  55 

Mother  Goose 

A  Book  of  Nursery  Rhymes,  arranged  by  CHARLES  WELSH.  In  two  parts. 
Illustrated  by  CLARA  E.  ATWOOD.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.) 
Paper,  each  part,  10  cents;  cloth,  two  parts  bound  in  one  .  30  cents. 

An  entirely  new  presentation  of  the  ever-attractive  Mother 
Goose  Rhymes  and  Jingles  —  the  child's  first  introduction  to 
rhyme  and  rhythm.  They  are  arranged  in  four  divisions  of  (i) 
mother  play,  (2)  mother  stories,  (3)  child  play,  and  (4)  child 
stories,  adapted  to  the  natural  development  of  the  intellectual 
powers  of  the  child.  The  illustrations  are  just  what  the  child 
can  understand  and  appreciate  at  this  stage,  as  they  are  drawn 
for  the  child  himself  and  not  for  the  ordinary  buyer  of  Holiday 
Gift  Books. 

Heart  of  Oak  Books 

Edited  by  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON.  Vol.  I.   Cloth.    128  pages.    25  cents. 

The  old  childish  rhymes  and  jingles  and  some  of  the  most 
widely  known  fables  and  stories.  Illustrated  by  Frank  T. 
Merrill. 

Six  Nursery  Classics 

The  House  That  Jack  Built;  Mother  Hubbard;  Cock  Robin;  The  Old 
Woman  and  Her  Pig;  Dame  Wiggins  of  Lee,  and  Three  Bears.  Edited 
by  M.  V.  O'Shea.  Illustrated  by  ERNEST  FOSBERY.  (Heath's  Home 
and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth  .  .  .20  cents. 

"  These  stories  which  naturally  take  their  place  in  the  child's 
reading  immediately  after  the  Nursery  Rhymes  and  Jingles  are," 
says  Professor  O'Shea,  "  full  of  life  and  movement  and  heroic 
deeds.  They  present  situations  which  are  not  altogether  im- 
possible in  the  child's  own  life,  and  he  is  transported  by  them 
into  the  realms  inhabited  by  the  character  of  the  tale,  and  he 
adopts  their  conduct,  condensing  his  own  sphere  of  action  by 
this  means." 

They  are  told  in  the  simple,  direct,  straightforward  language 
with  which  they  first  caught  the  ear  of  the  people  when  the 
world  was  young,  and  they  introduce  the  child  to  his  first  friend- 
ship with  fiction.  For  this  early  stage  of  the  child's  acquaintance 
with  books,  the  pictures  will  keep  pace  with  the  child's  growing 
power  of  understanding  them,  always  preceding  him  by  a  few  steps. 


56  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

Old  World  Wonder  Stories 

Whittington  and  His  Cat;  Jack  the  Giant-Killer;  Jack  and  the  Bean- 
stalk;  Tom  Thumb.  Edited  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA.  (Heath's  Home  and 
School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents ;  cloth  .  .  .  .20  cents. 

This  collection  will  come  in  the  early  stage  of  the  child's  Fairy 
Tale  reading.  The  stories  are  to  be  found  in  the  oldest  litera- 
ture of  the  race.  They  attract  and  thrill,  while  they  satisfy  the 
needs  of  the  childish  imagination,  and  leave  nothing  which  will 
need  to  be  afterwards  eradicated. 

"  We  must,"  says  Professor  O'Shea,  "  give  the  child  a  lift  up  toward  the  refined 
aspects  of  moral  courage  by  affording  him  a  chance  to  try  himself  first  with  the 
grosser  forms  of  physical  courage.  These  stories  show  the  mind  of  man  stimulating 
itself  to  bravery  by  the  recounting  of  deeds  requiring  the  greatest  daring  and  cour- 
age. In  the  plan  of  growth  of  all  things  simplicity  and  crudity  lie  as  means  to  the 
end  of  complexity  and  refinement,  and  hence  these  stories  have  always  in  the  past 
and  should  in  the  present  find  a  place  in  children's  literature." 

Perault's  Tales  of  Mother  Goose 

Translated  by  CHARLES  WELSH,  with  an  introduction  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA. 
Illustrated  after  DORE.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper, 
10  cents ;  cloth 20  cents. 

These  are  the  famous  fairy  tales  in  which  children  have  de- 
lighted for  hundreds  of  years  past.  They  are  presented  as  the 
great  Frenchman  first  collected  them  from  the  lips  of  the  people, 
—  and  in  the  earliest  translation  made  into  English,  —  which  is 
in  the  style  that  best  befits  the  subject. 

They  stimulate  and  nourish  those  qualities  that  are  of  supreme  worth  in 
individual  and  social  life  —  those  attributes  of  character  that  we  are  seeking  to 
develop  in  all  educational  work. 

Craik's  So  Fat  and  Mew  Mew 

Introduction  by  LUCY  M.  WHEELOCK.  Illustrated  by  C.  M.  HOWARD. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents  ;  cloth,  20  cents. 

A  charming  little  tale,  told  in  simple,  easy  language,  which 
beginners  in  reading  can  understand.  It  is  a  continuous  story, 
but  the  events  are  so  woven  together  that  it  does  not  demand 
long  continuous  reading  to  get  at  a  satisfactory  incident.  The 
events  are  the  events  of  childhood,  moving  simply  and  naturally, 
and  the  results  which  flow  from  them  appeal  to  that  sense  of 
propriety  and  reason  often  so  conspicuous  in  normal  children, 
even  of  the  youngest: 


SECOND  AND   THIRD    YEARS  $? 


SECOND  AND  THIRD  YEARS 

Books  which  bring  to  the  child  the  knowledge  which  will 
appeal  to  his  awakening  interest  in  outdoor  life,  books  which 
acquaint  him  with  the  lives  of  other  children,  and  books 
which  ftirnish  him  ^vith  some  of  the  classic  stories  which 
have  been  specially  written  for  him. 

Heart  of  Oak  Books 

Edited  by  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON.     Illustrated.    Vol.  II.    Cloth.     176 
pages .        .        .    35  cents. 

In  this  volume  favorite  fables  and  nursery  tales  are  introduced, 
according  to  the  purpose  of  the  editor  throughout  the  series,  as 
helps  in  the  cultivation  of  taste  and  in  the  healthy  development 
of  the  imagination. 

A  First  Reader 

By  ANNA  B.  BADLAM.     Boards.     Illustrated.     1 70  pages       .     30  cents. 

New  and  valuable  word-building  exercises  add  interest  to  the 
work.  Carefully  graded  writing  lessons  and  exercises  for  desk 
work  are  excellent  and  novel  features. 

Stories  of  Old  Greece 

By  EMMA  M.  FIRTH.    Cloth.    1 08  pages.    Illustrated..  75  cents.    Boards 

30  cents. 

An  admirable  collection  of  Greek  myths  which  will  greatly 
help  the  children  of  the  present  to  understand  the  thought  of 
the  childhood  of  the  race. 

Crib  and  Fly:  A  Tale  of  Two  Terriers 

Edited  by  CHARLES  F.  DOLE.     Illustrated  by  GWENDOLINE  SANDHAM. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)     Paper,  10  cents;  cloth,  20  cents. 

Stories  about  animals,  told  in  simple  language  and  attractive 
style,  have  a  charm  for  children  of  a  very  early  age.  This  is  a 
story  which  has  been  popular  for  many  years  on  both  sides  of 


58  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

the  Atlantic,  and  will  be  welcomed  in  this,  the  cheapest  and  most 
attractive  form  in  which  it  has  ever  been  published.  The 
pictures  will  extend  the  child's  acquaintance  with  or  deepen  its 
impressions  of  animal  life. 

"  Children  instinctively  love  animals,"  says  the  Editor,  "  and  naturally  like  to 
read  about  what  they  love.  This  story  tends  to  encourage  and  develop  affection 
for  the  animal  creation,  and  to  strengthen  and  deepen  that  love  of  humanity  which 
is  part  of  the  true  education  of  the  individual.  Stories  such  as  this  should  therefore 
have  a  distinct  place  in  the  child's  reading." 

Goody  Two  Shoes 

Attributed  to  OLIVER  GOLDSMITH.  Edited  by  CHARLES  WELSH.  With 
twenty-eight  illustrations  after  the  woodcuts  in  the  original  edition  of 
1765.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth 

20  cents. 

"  Goody  Two  Shoes  "  will  always  deserve  a  place  among  the 
classics  of  childhood  for  its  literary  merit,  the  purity  and  lofti- 
ness of  its  tone,  and  its  sound  sense,  while  the  whimsical,  con- 
fidential, affectionate  style  which  the  author  employs  makes  it 
attractive  even  to  children  who  have  long  since  passed  the 
spelling-book  stage  of  existence. 

The  Story  of  a  Donkey 

By  Madame  DE  SEGUR.  Translated  by  CHARLES  WELSH.  Edited  by 
C.  F.  DOLE.  Illustrated  by  E.  H.  SAUNDERS.  (Heath's  Home  and 
School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents ;  cloth  .  .  .  .20  cents. 

Madame  de  Segur's  stories  are  among  the  most  popular  books 
for  children  in  France.  The  story  of  a  donkey  is  charmingly 
told  in  vivid  and  lifelike  manner,  and  in  language  exactly  suited 
to  children  at  the  age  when  they  all  delight  to  read  about  ani- 
mals —  while  the  lessons  it  conveys  are  those  which  should  be 
inculcated  at  this  or  any  other  stage.  The  pictures  are  truthful 
and  pleasing. 

Sophie 

Adapted  from  the  French  of  Madame  DE  SEGUR  by  CHARLES  WELSH. 
Illustrated  by  EUGENE  PRAND.  Edited  by  Miss  ADA  VAN  STONE  HARRIS. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents  ;  cloth,  20  cents. 

Of  this  famous  French  classic  Miss  Ada  Van  Stone  Harris 
says :  "  The  value  of  the  story  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  embodies 


SECOND   AND    THIRD    YEARS  59 

truths  so  well  wrought  out  that  whether  read  to  the  child  or  by 
the  child  they  will  unconsciously  lift  the  mind  to  higher  activities, 
and  develop  that  keen  feeling  that  makes  for  noble  action." 

The   History  of  the  Robins 

By  Mrs.  TRIMMER.  Edited  by  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE.  Illustrated  by 
C.M.HOWARD.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents; 
cloth 20  cents. 

The  story  of  "  Dicksy,  Pecksy,  and  Flapsy  "  is  a  perennial 
favorite  with  English-speaking  children,  and  this  edition  is  the 
cheapest  and  the  prettiest  yet  put  upon  the  market.  The  pic- 
tures are  drawn  after  the  many  famous  artists  who  have  illus- 
trated different  editions. 

Eyes  and   No  Eyes,  and  Other  Stories 

By  Dr.  AIKEN  and  Mrs.  BARBAULD.  Edited  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA.  Illus- 
trated by  H.  P.  BARNES  and  C.  M.  HOWARD.  (Heath's  Home  and 
School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth  .  .  .  .20  cents. 

A  story  which  has  been  almost  forgotten  in  the  flood  of 
modern  material,  but  which,  if  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and 
Charles  Kingsley  are  to  be  trusted,  should  never  be  left  out  of 
children's  reading.  In  pleasant  style,  it  shows  the  value  of 
keeping  one's  eyes  open  and  teaches  the  important  art  of  "  How 
to  observe,"  wrhich  is  the  real  foundation  of  all  knowledge.  The 
book  contains  also  "  The  Three  Giants  "  by  Mrs.  Marcet,  and 
two  other  short  stories.  It  is  illustrated  in  a  manner  which  may 
be  styled  annotative ;  thajt  is,  the  illustrations  are  equal  to  anno- 
tation of  the  text. 

Waste  Not,  Want  Not,  and  Other  Stories 

By  MARIA  EDGEWORTH.  Edited  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA.  Illustrated  by  W.  P. 
BODWELL.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents  ; 
cloth .  .  .20  cents. 

These  are  stories  with  a  moral,  it  is  true,  but  so  full  of  action, 
of  life,  and  interest  that  the  moral  will  not  be  seen  or  detected 
till  its  influence  is  felt.  They  belong  to  a  period  in  our  litera- 
ture when  the  language  was  perhaps  more  sedate,  but  certainly 
not  less  elegant,  than  it  is  now.  The  pictures  will  give  an  idea 
of  the  customs  and  manners  of  a  by-gone  time. 


60  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

The  King  of  the  Golden  River 

By  JOHN  RUSKIN.  Edited  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA.  Illustrated  by  SEARS  GAL- 
LAGHER. (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth 

20  cents. 

Professor  O'Shea  says  :  "  I  know  of  nothing  better  calculated 
to  entertain  and  to  exert  a  wholesome  influence  upon  the  young 
than  this  tale.  If  a  teacher  or  a  parent  will  permit  his  children 
to  read  the  story,  saying  nothing  whatever  to  them  about  it,  he 
will  discover  how  vividly  its  scenes  get  wrought  into  their  con- 
versations, their  plays,  and  their  games ;  and  then  he  will  realize 
how  effectively  Ruskin  has  taught  his  lesson." 

The  Wonderful  Chair  and  The  Tales  It  Told 

By  FRANCES  BROWNE.  Edited  by  M.  V.  O'SHEA.  Illustrated  by  CLARA 
E.  ATWOOD  after  Mrs.  SEYMOUR  LUCAS.  In  two  parts.  (Heath's  Home 
and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  each  part,  10  cents;  cloth,  two  parts  bound 
in  one 30  cents. 

"  The  Wonderful  Chair  "  is  a  favorite  that  has  been  out  of 
print  for  years,  but  it  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  such  a  library  of 
children's  literature  as  this.  Mrs.  Seymour  Lucas,  the  wife 
of  the  eminent  painter,  has  illustrated  this  story  once  for  all, 
and  her  pictures  have  been  drawn  upon  for  this  edition. 

Professor  O'Shea  says :  "  I  cannot  too  highly  commend  the  stories  of  '  The 
Wonderful  Chair.'  The'y  are,  though  set  in  an  atmosphere  of  the  wonderful,  full  of 
happenings  which  are  always  real  and  possible,  the  characters  are  concrete  and 
natural,  and  the  incidents  are  related  in  a  most  pleasing  style." 

Seaside  and  Wayside 

By  JULIA  McNAiR  WRIGHT.  Cloth.  Illustrated.  No.  I,  95  pages.  25 
cents.  No.  II,  184  pages 35  cents. 

This  series  is  intented  to  awaken  in  children  a  taste  for  scien- 
tific study,  to  develop  their  power  of  attention,  and  to  encourage 
thought  and  observation,  by  directing  their  minds  to  the  living 
things  about  them. 

My  Saturday  Bird  Class 

Edited  by  MARGARET  MILLER.  Boards.    112  pages.   Illustrated     25  cents. 
A  graphic  account  of  familiar  birds  and  an  eye-opener  for 
practical  observation  by  young  folks.      The  book  is  expressly 
adapted  for  the  spring  months. 


SECOND  AND   THIRD   YEARS  6 1 

From  September  to  June  with  Nature 

By  MINETTA  L.  WARREN.    Boards.    196  pages.    Illustrated    .     35  cents. 

In  this  reader  the  work  is  divided  into  months.  Each  lesson 
is  drawn  from  the  previous  one  and  emphasizes  the  preparation 
of  plant  and  animal  life  for  winter,  "  the  going  to  sleep  "  of 
nature,  and  its  glad  awakening  in  the  spring.  The  book  con- 
tains numerous  quotations  from  the  poets,  and  is  beautifully 
illustrated. 

Plant  Life 

By  FLORENCE  BASS.    Revised  and  enlarged  edition.    158  pages     25  cents. 

Designed  to  teach  some  of  the  most  interesting  facts  about 
plants  through  stories  presenting  the  life  and  growth  of  individ- 
ual plants,  —  in  terms  of  human  life.  This  puts  the  child  in 
touch  with  Nature. 

Animal  Life 

By  FLORENCE  BASS.     Boards.     183  pages.     Illustrated  .         .     35  cents. 

Contains  chiefly  stories  of  inseqts,  illustrating  their  varied 
means  of  self-protection,  their  methods  of  home-building,  of 
caring  for  their  young,  transformations,  etc.  These  stories  will 
lead  the  child  to  observe  such  life  in  its  natural  environment. 

Leaves  and  Flowers 

Or  Plant  Stories  for  Young  Readers.     By  MARY  A.  SPEAR.     Boards. 
in  pages.     Illustrated 25  cents. 

Reading  intended  to  acquaint  children  with  plant  words  and 
plants  themselves.  New  words  and  thoughts  are  repeated  in 
short,  simple  sentences,  and  a  sure  command  of  language  is 
gained  by  dealing  with  strictly  denned  ideas. 

Docas 

The   Indian  Boy  of   Santa  Clara.     By  GENEVRA   SISSON-SNEDDEN. 
Cloth.     1 60  pages.     Twenty-seven  full-page  illustrations         .     35  cents. 

This  attractive  story  of  the  life  of  the  Indian  of  southern  Cali- 
fornia is  suited  to  the  use  of  intermediate  classes.  It  portrays 


62  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

the  habits  and  customs  of  a  race  of  rare  good  qualities,  and 
gives  an  accurate  picture  of  life  in  California  just  before  it  be- 
came a  part  of  the  United  States.  Such  a  book  can  serve  an 
important  end  as  an  introduction  to  geography  and  history. 

America's  Story  for  America's  Children 

By  MARA  L.  PRATT.  Five  volumes.  Handsomely  bound.  Effectively 
illustrated.  Book  I.  "  The  Beginner's  Book."  Cloth.  135  pages.  8vo. 
Large  type.  Four  full-page  illustrations  in  color  .  .  -35  cents. 

A  delightful  story-book  for  children,  developing  centres  of 
interest  through  picturesque  and  personal  incidents  connected 
with  the  greater  events  of  our  history.  The  charm  of  romance 
is  combined  with  accurate  and  important  history  in  this  volume. 

America's  Story  for  America's  Children 

By  MARA  L.  PRATT.  Five  volumes.  Handsomely  bound.  Effectively 
illustrated.  Book  II.  "  Exploration  and  Discovery."  Cloth.  160 
pages 40  cents. 

Tells  the  story  of  the  great  discoverers  and  explorers  from 
Leif  Ericson  to  Henry  Hudson.  It  gives  a  vivid  description 
of  the  Spanish,  French,  English,  and  Dutch  navigators,  and  of 
the  simple  life  of  the  aborigines.  Numerous  and  authentic  illus- 
trations. A  story  that  is  as  attractive  as  romance. 


FOURTH  AND   FIFTH  YEARS 

Books  which  appeal  to  the  child' $  awakened  interest  in 
Nature  ;  books  which  acquaint  him  witJi  the  lives  of  chil- 
dren in  other  lands  and  in  other  times,  and  books  which 
fiirnisJi  him  with  many  of  the  classic  stories. 

Heart  of  Oak  Books 

Edited  by  CHARLES   ELIOT  NORTON.     Cloth.     Illustrated.     Vol.   III. 
265  pages 45  cents. 

In  this  volume  of  the  series  are  some  of  the  best  poems  of 
childhood,  old  stories,  fairy  tales  and  ballads,  in  keeping  with 
the  aim  of  the  series  to  provide  the  means  for  culture  through 
good  reading. 


^FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  YEARS  63 

Stories  of  Long  Ago 

By  GRACE  H.  KUPFER.     Boards.      Beautifully  illustrated.      170  pages 

35  cents. 

In  charming  style,  about  forty  of  the  most  interesting  Greek 
myths  and  legends  are  told  for  children.  The  book  also  con- 
tains a  large  number  of  the  best  short  poems  based  on  the  myths 
of  the  Greeks. 

The  Rose  and  the  Ring 

By  WILLIAM  THACKERAY.  A  Fairy  Tale.  Edited  by  EDWARD  EVERETT 
HALE.  Illustrations  by  THACKERAY.  (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)  Paper,  15  cents;  cloth 25  cents. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  and  amusing  books  for 
children  and  has  been  too  little  known.  This  edition  contains 
all  the  author's  drawings  for  the  work  as  well  as  the  curious 
rhyming  head-lines.  It  has  been  said  that  Thackeray  has  been 
as  successful  in  this  his  only  effort  at  writing  for  children  as  in 
his  books  for  older  people. 

Three  Fairy  Stories 

By  JEAN  INGELOW.  Edited  by  CHARLES  F.  DOLE.  Illustrated  by  E. 
RIPLEY.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth 

20  cents. 

The  graceful  fancy,  the  pure  and  free  English,  and  the  lofty 
lessons  conveyed  in  all  Jean  Ingelow's  stories  for  children,  with 
no  obtrusion  of  the  moral,  entitle  her  to  a  very  high  place  in 
the  ranks  of  successful  writers  for  the  little  ones. 

Child  Life  in  Japan 

And  Japanese  Child  Stories.  By  Mrs.  M.  CHAPLIN  AYRTON.  Edited 
by  WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS.  Illustrated  by  Japanese  artists.  (Heath's 
Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth  .  .  20  cents. 

Mrs.  Chaplin  Ayrtorf  lived  long  in  Japan  and  took  a  keen 
interest  in  the  people  and  their  beautiful  country,  and  in  1879 
she  published  this  book  in  a  very  gorgeous  and  expensive  edition. 
Mr.  William  Elliot  Griffis,  who  introduced  the  American  school 
system  into  Japan  and  is  therefore  well  qualified  to  speak,  calls 
it  a  "  true  picture  of  the  old  Japan  "  which  is  fast  passing  away. 


64  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

Jackanapes 

By  Mrs.  EWING.     Edited  by  W.  P.  TRENT.     Illustrated  by  JOSEPHINE 
BRUCE.     (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)     Paper,  10  cents;   cloth 

20  cents. 

This  is  one  of  Mrs.  Ewing's  charming  tales,  teaching  lessons 
of  manliness  and  truth,  and  written  in  that  style  which  has 
gained  for  her  so  many  thousands  of  sympathetic  readers  both 
young  and  old.  Professor  Trent  says,  "  It  is  too  well  known 
to  require  praise,  ahd  its  fitness  for  such  a  series  as  this  is 
incontestable." 


The  Little  Lame  Prince 

By  Miss  MULO^K.  Preface  by  ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS  WARD.  Illus- 
trated by  Miss  E.  B.  BARRY.  In  two  parts.  (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)  Paper,  each  part,  10  cents;  cloth,  two  parts  bound  in  one 

30  cents. 

"  The  story  is  as  full  of  interest  as  if  it  had  not  a  moral  to  its 
name.  It  is  genuine  fairy-work,  interlaced  with  the  unex- 
pected, alive  with  marvels.  You  will  shudder  before  the  inac- 
cessible steeps  of  the  Hopeless  Tower  ;  you  will  grow  dizzy 
when  you  look  from  the  skies  in  the  travelling  cloak  ;  you  will 
thrill  with  the  joy  of  freedom  when  the  Prince  floats  out  of  his 
prison,  and  you  are  one  of  his  heartiest  subjects,  when  he  comes 
to  his  throne,  as  all  wronged  Princes  ought  to  do." 


The  Adventures  of  Ulysses 

By  CHARLES  LAMB.     Edited  by  W.  P.  TRENT.     Illustrations  after  FLAX- 
MAN.     (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)     Paper,  15  cents;    cloth 

25  cents. 

"  It  would  seem  hard,"  says  Professor  Trent,  "  to  find  a  book 
that  ought  so  well  to  serve  young  readers  as  a  starting-point  for 
the  exploration  of  imaginative  literature  as  Lamb's  '  Adventures 
of  Ulysses,'  which  has  long  been  a  favorite  with  readers  young 
and  old.  It  brings  the  child  in  contact  with  the  '  Odyssey,' - 
that  fountain  head  of  romance,  perhaps  the  most  fascinating 
single  book  in  the  world,  and  also  with  Lamb  himself,  one  of 
the  most  charming  of  all  English  prose  writers." 


FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  YEARS  65 

Gulliver's  Travels 

I.  A  Voyage  to  Lilliput.  II.  A  Voyage  to  Brobdingnag.  By  Dean 
SWIFT.  Edited  by  T.  M.  BALLIET.  Fully  illustrated.  In  two  parts. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  each  part,  15  cents; 
cloth,  one  vol 30  cents. 

No  liberties  have  been  taken  with  the  text  of  this  famous  book 
except  to  remove  the  obvious  blemishes  which  unfit  it  for  young 
people's  reading.  The  illustrations  are  after  the  work  of  one 
of  the  best  artists  who  have  pictured  these  stories. 

"  For  young  children  the  book  combines  in  a  measure  the  interest  of '  Robinson 
Crusoe  '  and  that  of  the  fairy  tale ;  its  style  is  objective,  the  narrative  is  simple,  and 
the  matter  appeals  strongly  to  the  childish  imagination.  For  more  mature  boys  and 
girls,  and  for  adults,  the  interest  is  found  chiefly  in  the  keen  satire  which  underlies 
the  narrative.  It  appeals,  therefore,  to  a  very  wide  range  of  intelligence  and  taste, 
and  can  be  read  with  profit  by  the  child  of  ten  and  by  the  young  man  or  woman  of 
mature  years.  As  a  reading  book  in  school  which  must  be  adapted  to  the  average 
mind,  these  stories  will  be  found  suitable  for  classes  from  the  fifth  or  sixth  school 
year  to  the  highest  grade  of  the  grammar  school."  —  FROM  THE  EDITOR'S 
PREFACE. 

The  Story  of  a  Short  Life 

By  Mrs.  EWING.  Edited  by  T.  M.  BALLIET.  Illustrated  by  A.  F.  SCHMITT. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth,  20  cents. 

"  This  touching  little  story  is  much  less  familiar  to  American  boys  and  girls  than 
it  deserves  to  be,  and  its  publication  in  this  series  will  form  an  important  addition 
to  our  juvenile  literature.  The  heroic  in  our  nature  and  the  instinct  of  hero-wor- 
ship are  especially  strong  in  youth,  and  appear  in  one  form  or  another,  even  in  the 
later  days  of  childhood.  The  gratification,  and  at  the  same  time  the  ennobling  of 
this  instinct,  is  an  important  function  of  juvenile  literature.  It  is  here  where  this 
little  story  will  accomplish  its  mission.  Its  heroism  and  its  pathos  are  of  a  charac- 
ter to  touch  this  side  of  child  nature,  and  to  spiritualize  it. 

"The  thought  of  the  story  is  no  more  difficult  than  the  language,  and  the  book 
may  safely  be  given  to  any  boy  or  girl  for  whom  the  mechanical  difficulties  of  the 
language  are  not  too  great.  As  a  reading  book  in  school,  it  will  probably  be  found 
best  adapted  for  use  with  classes  of  the  sixth  or  seventh  year  of  school."  —  FROM 
EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

Tales  from  the  Travels  of  Baron  Munchausen 

Edited  by  Dr.  E.  E.  HALE.  Illustrated  by  H.  P.  BARNES  after  DORE. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper  10  cents;  cloth,  20  cents. 

This  book  of  wonder-exciting  stories,  written  to  bring  into 
contempt  the  exaggerations  of  the  eighteenth  century  traveller's 
tales,  has  been  appropriated  by  the  children  with  that  unerring 
instinct  which  led  them  to  make  Gulliver  and  Robinson  Crusoe 
their  own. 


66  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

The  Story  without  an  End 

By  F.  W.  CAROVE.  Translated  from  the  German  by  SARAH  AUSTIN. 
With  a  preface  by  Colonel  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON.  Fourteen 
illustrations  after  the  drawings  by  E.  V.  B.  (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)  Cloth 25  cents. 

This  famous  story  was  highly  commended  for  children's  read- 
ing by  Carlyle,  and  Sir  Walter  Besant  called  it  "a  delight- 
ful story."  Colonel  Higginson  says  it  appeals  specially  to  the 
always  "  living  minds  of  young  children." 

Alice  and  Tom 

The  Record  of  a  Happy  Year.  By  KATE  L.  BROWN.  Cloth.  220 
pages 40  cents. 

A  story  of  two  happy,  hearty  children  who  love  outdoor  sports 
and  the  companionship  of  birds,  flowers,  and  trees.  Ostensibly 
it  is  not  a  book  of  information,  but  each  chapter  aims  to  be  a 
little  centre  of  inspiration,  attractive  to  small  people. 

Fridtjof  Nansen 

By  JACOB  B.  BULL.  Translated  from  the  Norwegian  by  MORDAUNT  R. 
BARNARD,  one  of  the  translators  of  "  Farthest  North."  Boards.  142 
pages.  Illustrated 30  cents. 

A  spirited  and  enthusiastic  narrative  of  Nansen's  youth,  early 
manhood,  and  adventures  in  the  Arctic  regions.  The  story  is 
clear  and  vivid,  and  the  descriptions  are  accurate.  About 
twenty  pictures,  showing  Nansen  and  his  ship,  Arctic  animals 
and  scenes,  add  to  the  attractiveness  of  the  story. 

Stories  of  Pioneer  Life 

By  FLORENCE  BASS,  author  of  "The  Beginner's  Reader,"  "Stories  in 
Plant  Life,"  "  Stories  in  Animal  Life."  Cloth.  146  pages.  Illustrated 

40  cents. 

A  series  of  biographical  stories  of  the  men  who  illustrate  the 
periods  of  the  missionary,  the  hunter,  and  the  early  settler  in 
the  Ohio  Valley.  These  stories  admirably  prepare  the  chil- 
dren's minds  for  the  later  study  of  history,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  develop  an  admiration  for  the  sturdy  patriotism,  heroism, 
and  manhood  which  characterized  the  early  pioneers.  Such 
stories  make  the  right  kind  of  reading  for  young  Americans. 


FOURTH  AND  FIFTH   YEARS  67 

America's  Story  for  America's  Children 

By  MARA  L.  PRATT.     Five  volumes.      Handsomely  bound.     Effectively 
illustrated.     Book  III.     "  The  Colonies."     Cloth.     182  pages      40  cents. 

The  story  of  the  first  settlements  on  this  continent  and  of  the 
beginnings  of  the  thirteen  colonies.  The  style  is  animated  and 
the  narrative  vivid.  The  subject-matter  includes  the  results  of 
the  most  recent  research  and  the  most  accurate  data  that  are 
available  concerning  the  earlier  colonial  period. 


America's  Story  for  America's  Children 

By  MARA  L.  PRATT.  Five  volumes.  Handsomely  bound.  Effectively 
illustrated.  Book  IV.  "The  Later  Colonial  Period."  Cloth.  131 
pages 40  cents. 

Treats  of  the  early  settlements  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  the 
French  and  Indian  wars,  etc.,  and  gives  vivid  and  definite  ideas 
of  the  heroes  of  the  later  colonial  period. 


Our  Feathered  Friends 

By  ELIZABETH  GRINNELL  and  JOSEPH  GRINNELL.  With  an  introduction 
by  WILLIAM  PALMER  of  the  National  Museum,  Washington,  D.C.  Boards. 
Fully  illustrated.  152  pages 30  cents. 

No  child  can  read  this  book  and  fail  to  become  a  more  keen 
and  intelligent  observer  of  birds  and  their  ways.  The  authors 
make  use  of  the  results  of  accurate  personal  observation,  and 
appeal  to  children  in  a  way  to  bring  them  into  sympathetic 
touch  with  nature.  More  than  forty  common  varieties  of  birds 
are  treated. 

The  illustrations  are  numerous,  and  in  accuracy  excel  any 
other  series  that  has  been  included  in  a  book  for  schools. 


Seaside  and  Wayside 

By  JULIA  McNAiR  WRIGHT.     Cloth.    No.  III.     306  pages    .    45  cents. 

Continues  the  encouragement  of  investigation  by  directing 
attention  to  the  things  about  the  children.  The  book  contains 
lessons  on  plant  life,  grasshoppers,  butterflies,  and  birds. 


68  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 


SIXTH  AND  SEVENTH   YEARS 

Books  which  lead  the  child  into  the  wide  open  field  of 
literature,  which  expand  his  stock  of  world  knowledge  and 
introduce  him  to  the  history  of  his  nation  and  kis  race. 

Heart  of  Oak  Books 

Edited  by   CHARLES   ELIOT  NORTON.      Cloth.     Vol.  IV.     303  pages 

50  cents. 

This  volume  of  the  series  contains  some  of  the  shorter  poems 
and  prose  writings  long  accepted  as  best  wherever  the  English 
language  is  spoken.  It  cultivates  a  taste  for  the  purest  litera- 
ture, aids,  the  healthy  development  of  the  imagination,  and  thus 
helps  the  formation  and  invigoration  of  the  best  elements  of 
character  by  instilling'  the  spirit  of  the  noblest  productions  of 
great  essayists,  chroniclers,  and  poets. 

The  Bird  Book 

By  FANNIE  HARDY  ECKSTORM.   Cloth.    259  pages.    Illustrated     60  cents. 

This  book  gives  the  pupil  a  habit  of  keen  observation  and  an 
interest  and  enthusiasm  in  bird-study.  The  lives  of  nearly  one 
hundred  birds  that  are  well  known  and  easily  observed,  receive 
particular  study.  There  are  fifty-eight  illustrations  from  nature. 
The  book  is  in  all  respects  a  finished,  attractive  piece  of  work 
and  has  rare  literary  excellence. 

Seaside  and  Wayside 

By  JULIA  McNAiR  WRIGHT.     Cloth.    No.  IV.     372  pages     .     50  cents. 

The  charm  of  the  clear,  simple  style  of  this  series  is  preserved 
in  this  volume,  which  treats  of  world  life  in  its  different  aspects 
and  periods.  Elementary  astronomy  and  zoology  form  a  large 
part  of  the  work.  This  book  is  calculated  to  broaden  and 
deepen  the  interest  and  intelligence  of  pupils  in  the  wider  fields 
of  study  which  the  earlier  volumes  have  opened  to  them. 


SIXTH  AND  SEVENTH   YEARS  69 

Tales  from  Shakespeare 

By  CHARLES  LAMB.  Introduction  by  ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS  WARD. 
Illustrated  by  HOMER  W.  COLBY  after  PILLE.  (Heath's  Home  and 
School  Classics.)  In  three  parts.  Paper,  each  part,  15  cents;  cloth, 
three  parts  bound  in  one 40  cents. 

"  In  spite  of  a  century's  change  the  value  of  this  work,"  says 
the  editor,  "  has  grown  with  years.  The  Shakespeare  stories  of 
Charles  and  Mary  Lamb  have  always  been,  and  will  always  be, 
eagerly  read  by  men  and  women,  old  and  young." 

The  Crofton  Boys 

By  HARRIET  MARTINEAU.     Edited  by  WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS.     Illus- 
trated by  A.  F.  SCHMITT.     In  two  parts.     (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)     Paper,  each  part,  10  cents;   cloth,  two  parts  bound  in  one 
»  30  cents. 

This  is  a  story  of  schoolboy  life  by  the  famous  author  of 
"  Feats  on  the  Fjord,"  "  Peasant  and  Prince,"  etc.  It  is  full  of 
sound,  earnest,  common  sense,  and  the  charm  of  its  tender  feel- 
ing, clear  English,  and  living  human  interest  has  won  for  it  a 
high  place.  The  pictures  show  how  schoolboys  lived  and  played 
early  in  the  century. 

The  Siege  of  Leyden 

By  J.  L.  MOTLEY.  Edited  by  WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS.  With  nine- 
teen illustrations  from  old  Dutch  prints  and  photographs,  and  a  map. 
(Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth,  20  cents. 

"  The  story  of  the  siege  of  Leyden,"  says  Dr.  W.  Elliot  Griffis, 
"  belongs  not  to  the  Dutch  only  but  to  the  world's  history  of 
freedom.  No  other  city  on  the  continent  of  Europe  is  so  closely 
connected  with  American  history. 

"  The  story  of  the  terrible  siege  it  underwent  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  how  the  work  of  war  went  on  without,  while  famine  and 
pestilence  raged  within,  and  how  the  city  was  relieved  by  cut- 
ting the  dikes  and  making  the  ocean  fight  for  the  Dutch,  drown- 
ing the  land  and  driving  out  the  Spaniards,  is  told  in  Motley's 
brilliant  pages.  To  his  famous  chapter  we  have  added  some 
notes,  in  order  that  every  American  boy  may  learn  how  the  salt 
water  of  the  sea,  and  the  patriotic  valor  of  the  Dutch,  drove  off 
the  forces  of  tyranny  and  made  Leyden  a  beacon  light  in  the 


70  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

history  of  liberty.  The  illustrations  are  drawn  from  contem- 
porary sources,  portraits,  monuments,  historic  buildings,  and 
other  objects  which  figured  in  the  siege." 

Rab  and  His  Friends 

and  Stories  of  Our  Dogs.  By  Dr.  JOHN  BROWN.  Edited  by  T.  M. 
BALLIET.  Illustrated  by  DAVID  L.  MUNROE  after  Sir  NOEL  PATON, 
Mrs.  BLACKBURN,  GEORGE  HARDY,  and  LUMB  STOCKS.  (Heath's  Home 
and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  10  cents;  cloth  .  .20  cents. 

"  The  delightful  sketches,"  says  Superintendent  Balliet,  "  have 
long  since  established  themselves  as  classics  in  juvenile  litera- 
ture. They  appeal  to  the  healthy  boy  nature,  and  their  moral 
tone  is  good.  They  will  be  read  with  interest  by  young  people 
ranging  from  the  age  of  about  eleven  to  fifteen ;  as  a  reading 
book  this  volume  will  probably  be  found  best  adapted  to  the 
classes  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  year  of  school." 

Strange  Peoples 

By  FREDERICK  STARR,  Professor  of  Anthropology,  University  of  Chicago. 
Cloth.  198  pages.  Illustrated 40  cents. 

An  absolutely  accurate  and  intensely  interesting  account  of 
the  peculiarities  of  the  strange  peoples  of  the  world.  Professor 
Starr  is  a  man  of  extensive  travel  and  deep  research,  and  his 
book  has  the  unique  charm  and  force  which  can  only  come  from 
personal  descriptions  by  a  man  who  tells  what  he  himself  has 
seen  and  knows. 


American  Indians 

By  FREDERICK  STARR,  Professor  of  Anthropology,  University  of  Chicago. 
Cloth.     240  pages.     Illustrated 45  cents. 

A  well-written,  true  account  which  will  appeal  strongly  to  the 
young  and  give  them  correct  impressions  of  these  much  mis- 
understood peoples.  The  author  has  personal  knowledge  of  the 
customs  and  life  of  more  than  thirty  different  Indian  tribes  and 
has  made  good  use  of  his  unrivalled  opportunities  for  investi- 
gation. Both  the  past  and  the  present  life  is  portrayed  and  no 
tribal  peculiarity  is  neglected. 


EIGHTH  AND  NINTH   YEARS  71 

America's  Story  for  America's  Children 

By  MARA  L.  PRATT.     Five  volumes.     Handsomely  bound.     Effectively 
illustrated.    Book  V.    "  The  Revolution."     Cloth.     182  pages    40  cents. 

Tells  the  story  of  the  Revolution,  the  causes  that  led  to  it,  and 
of  the  men  who  guided  the  development  of  events  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  republic.  The  victories  of  peace  and  the 
growth  of  the  nation  in  wealth  and  power  are  also  set  forth. 
This  series  will  prove  fully  as  attractive  to  pupils  as  romance 
and  will  supplement  the  regular  instruction  in  history  in  an 
effective  manner. 

Stories  from  English  History 

Edited  by  H.  P.  WARREN,  Principal  of  Albany  Academy.     Decorated 
cloth  cover.     492  pages.     Fully  illustrated      .         .         .         .80  cents. 

A  series  of  interesting  and  picturesque  stories  arranged  in 
historical  sequence  and  grouped  in  their  proper  relations,  which 
treat  the  important  events  and  characters  of  English  history 
from  the  Roman  Invasion  through  the  death  of  Queen  Victoria, 
giving  especial  attention  to  those  that  have  influenced  American 
history.  The  book  is  a  supplementary  reader  of  unusual  literary 
merit,  adapted  for  upper  grammar  grades,  and  is  an  admirable 
introduction  to  the  formal  study  of  United  States  or  English 
history. 

EIGHTH    AND   NINTH    YEARS 

Books  which  make  the  young  reader  acquainted  with  many 
of  the  masterpieces  of  literature,  further  expand  his  world 
knowledge,  and  help  him  to  understand  his  position  as  an 
American  citizen. 

Heart  of  Oak  Books 

Edited  by  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON.     Cloth.    Vol.  V.,  359  pages,  55  cents. 
Vol.  VI.,  367  pages 60  cents. 

Poems  and  prose  writings  by  authors  who  represent  the  best 
productions  of  our  language,  and  by  which  the  reader  will  share 
in  the  common  literary  treasures  of  our  race. 


72  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

Chapters  on  Animals 

Dogs,  Cats,  and  Horses.  By  PHILIP  G.  HAMERTON.  Edited  by  W.  P. 
TRENT.  Illustrated  after  Sir  E.  LANDSEER,  Sir  JOHN  MILLAIS,  ROSA 
BONHEUR,  E.  VAN  MUYDEN,  VEYRASSAT,  J.  L.  GEROME,  K.  BOOMER, 
etc.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  15  cents;  cloth 

25  cents. 

With  illustrations  after  Veyrassat,  Van  Muyden,  Landseer, 
Rosa  Bonheur,  etc.,  by  E.  H.  Saunders  and  D.  Munro. 

An  excellent  book  for  the  older  boys  and  girls  who  have 
animal  companions  of  their  own,  and  have  learned  in  some 
degree  to  love  and  understand  them. 

Professor  Trent  says  "these  pages  cannot  fail  to  interest  readers  of  every  age, 
and  should,  moreover,  be  in  a  high  degree  educative  to  children." 

The  illustrations  from  the  best  sources  are  more  or  less  anno- 
tative  in  character. 


True  Tales  of  Birds  and  Beasts 

Selected  by  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN,  President  of  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University.  Sixty-one  illustrations.  (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)  Cloth 40  cents. 

"  True  Tales  of  Birds  and  Beasts  "  are  always  welcome  to 
children  of  every  age ;  here  are  a  dozen  stories  by  well-known 
writers  which  are  true,  and  which  are  also  good  for  children  of 
all  ages  to  read.  They  are  chosen  from  the  growing  wealth  of 
such  literature  because  they  are  told  with  literary  skill,  and  are 
not  so  tragic  as  to  be  painful  reading,  a  feature  of  some  modern 
writings  which  has  made  many  people  hesitate  about  putting 
them  into  the  hands  of  young  people.  It  has  been  fully  illus- 
trated under  the  supervision  of  the  editor  by  Miss  Mary  Weld- 
man,  the  associate  artist  of  the  Hopkins  Laboratory  of  Leland 
Stanford  Junior  University,  both  by  half-tone  and  line  drawings. 


Dolph  Heyliger 


By  WASHINGTON  IRVING.  Edited  by  G.  H.  BROWNE.  Illustrated  by  H. 
P.  BARNES.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Paper,  15  cents; 
cloth 25  cents. 

This  is  one  of  the  stories  from  "  Bracebridge  Hall."     It  pre- 
sents a  vivid  picture  of  New  York  in  old  Colonial  days,  and  will 


EIGHTH  AND  NINTH   YEARS  73 

be  read  by  young  people  with  delight  and  wonder  for  the  mys- 
tery it  contains,  and  with  instruction  from  its  pictures  of  past 
times  which  the  illustrations  emphasize  and  supplement. 

Shakespeare's  The  Tempest 

Edited  by  SARAH  W.  HIESTAND.  Illustrations  after  RETZCH  and  the 
CHANDOS  portrait.  Paper,  15  cents;  cloth  .  .  .  .25  cents. 

Shakespeare's  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream 

Edited  by  SARAH  W.  HIESTAND.  Illustrations  after  SMIRKE  and  the 
DROESHOUT  portrait.  Paper,  15  cents;  cloth  .  .  .25  cents. 

Shakespeare's  The  Comedy  of  Errors 

Edited  by  SARAH  W.  HIESTAND.  Illustrations  after  SMIRKE,  CRESWICK, 
LESLIE,  and  the  JANSEN  portrait.  Paper,  15  cents;  cloth  .  25  cents. 

Shakespeare's  The  Winter's  Tale 

Edited  by  SARAH  W.  HIESTAND.  Illustrations  after  LESLIE,  WHEATLEY, 
WRIGHT,  and  the  bust  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Paper,  15  cents;  cloth 

25  cents. 

The  first  four  plays  of  a  simplified  edition  of  Shakespeare 
suited  to  the  needs  of  readers  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years  of 
age  in  Heath's  "  Home  and  School  Classics"  Those  portions 
of  each  play  have  been  omitted  which  are  likely  to  prove  tedi- 
ous, puzzling,  or  incomprehensible  to  the  young  reader ;  and 
yet  this  version  will  be  found  full  enough  to  give  a  perfect  out- 
line of  each  play  —  of  which  it  tells  the  story  in  the  poefs  own 
words. 

Robinson  Crusoe 

By  DANIEL  DEFOE.  Reprint  from  the  first  edition  of  1719,  with  introduc- 
tion by  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE.  Illustrated  by  C.  E.  BROCK  and  D.  L. 
MUNRO.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  In  four  parts.  Paper, 
each  part,  15  cents;  cloth,  one  vol 60  cents. 

A  really  complete  edition  of  this  famous  classic,  not  adapted 
or  fitted  to  any  grade,  but  for  the  boy  or  girl  to  read  when  ready 
for  it  as  it  is.  All  the  action  and  all  the  psychological  interest 
is  there  as  well. 


74  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

Undine:  A  Romantic  Fairy  Tale 

By  F.  DE  LA  MOTTE  FouQUE,  with  an  introduction  by  Mrs.  ELIZABETH 
STUART  PHELPS  WARD.  Fifty-seven  illustrations  after  the  drawings  by 
JULIUS  HOPPNER.  (Heath's  Home  and  School  Classics.)  Cloth,  30  cents. 

"  Of  all  the  healthy,  happy,  right  instincts  in  our  children  which  it  should  be  the 
joy  of  all  right  and  healthy  parents  and  teachers  to  gratify  when  possible,  the  love 
of  wonderland  is  one  of  the  most  innocent,  and  perhaps  in  its  way  one  of  the  most 
inevitable.  We  may  give  place  to  it  heartily,  and  with  a  certain  respect  which  per- 
haps we  do  not  always  cultivate  towards  illusions  that  we  have  ourselves  outgrown. 
It  is  as  useful  as  skates,  or  dolls,  or  kites,  or  bob-sleds,  and  as  worthy  of  personal 
regard  or  attention.  It  has  as  true  a  place  in  the  education  of  our  children  as  the 
multiplication  table  or  the  map  of  Europe.  Of  all  the  fairy  tales  read  and  beloved 
in  my  own  fairy  years  I  do  not  recall  any  one  which  has  lived  by  me  longer  than 
'  Undine.'  .  .  .  The  book  is  as  clear  as  one  of  Undine's  own  lakes,  and  no  delicate 
child  could  see  anything  but  fair  and  lovely  images  in  it."  —  FROM  MRS.  ELIZABETH 
STUART  PHELPS  WARD. 

Typee :   Life  in  the  South  Seas 

By  HERMANN  MELVILLE,  with  introduction  by  Professor  W.  P.  TRENT. 
Eighteen  illustrations  by  H.  W.  MOORE.  (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)  Cloth 45  cents. 

Here  is  a  book  which  thoroughly  satisfies  every  boy's  love  of 
adventure,  while  it  introduces  him  to  new  scenes  and  new  lands 
all  vividly  described  with  a  skilful  pen,  and  in  strong,  graphic 
English.  Hermann  Melville's  works  have  long  since  taken  rank 
as  classic.  The  story  is  illustrated  by  a  sailor  who  has  sailed 
and  sketched  in  the  South  Seas. 

Castle  Blair 

By  FLORA  L.  SHAW.  With  an  introduction  by  Mrs.  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE. 
Eight  illustrations  by  the  Misses  WHITNEY.  (Heath's  Home  and  School 
Classics.)  Cloth 30  cents. 

This  is  the  book  which  John  Ruskin  said  "  is  good,  and  lovely, 
and  true,  having  the  best  description  of  a  noble  child  in  it 
(Winnie)  that  I  ever  read,  and  nearly  the  best  description  of 
the  next  best  thing  —  a  noble  dog." 

Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  says  it  is  "a  bright,  breezy  story  for  children  most  enter- 
tainingly told.  The  tone  is  uplifting,  and  the  young  people  who  read  it  will  not 
only  be  charmed  with  it,  but  will  be  made  happier  and  better  for  having  read  it." 

The  American  Citizen 

By  CHARLES  F.  DOLE.     Cloth.     336  pages      .        .        .        .80  cents. 


EIGHTH  AND  NINTH   YEARS  75 

An  interesting  and  patriotic  book  upon  American  citizenship. 
This  work  contains  such  subjects  as  every  boy  and  girl  needs  to 
know  something  about  before  leaving  school.  The  American 
government  as  it  is,  together  with  the  political,  social,  and  eco- 
nomic duties  of  citizens  to  the  state  and  to  one  another  are  set 
forth  in  a  clear  and  attractive  manner. 

First  Book  in  Geology 

By  N.  S.  SHALER,  Professor  of  Paleontology,  Harvard  University.  Cloth. 
272  pages.  Illustrated.  60  cents.  Boards  ...  45  cents. 

Professor  Shaler's  interesting  diction  makes  delightful  reading 
of  the  few  clear,  well-selected  facts  which  he  gives  as  a  key  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  earth.  The  aim  is  to  illustrate  the  prin- 
ciples of  geology  by  reference  to  familiar  experience  with,  for 
example,  pebbles,  sand,  clay,  the  work  of  water  and  air,  etc.  A 
teacher's  manual  is  provided. 

The  Sir  Roger  De  Coverley  Papers 

From  the  Spectator.  Edited,  with  introduction  and  notes,  by  WILLIAM 
HENRY  HUDSON,  Professor  of  English  Literature  in  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University.  Cloth.  Nine  full-page  illustrations  and  two  maps. 
232  pages 40  cents. 

In  this  edition  is  presented  a  text  that  is  accurate  and  authen- 
tic. The  complete  series  of  thirty-six  de  Coverley  Papers  is 
given.  The  illustrations  portray  the  life  and  customs  of  the  age. 

Ivanhoe 

By  Sir  WALTER  SCOTT.  Edited  by  PORTER  LANDER  MACCLINTOCK,  of 
the  University  of  Chicago.  Cloth.  574  pages.  Sixteen  full-page  illus- 
trations by  BROCK 50  cents. 

A  special  feature  of  this  edition  is  the  text,  which  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  a  definitive  edition  that  has  yet  appeared.  The 
introduction,  notes,  and  glossary  provide  the  necessary  informa- 
tion for  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  story. 

The  Last  of  the  Mohicans 

By  J.  FENNIMORE  COOPER.  Edited,  with  aids  to  appreciation,  by  JOHN  G. 
WIGHT,  Principal  of  the  Girls'  High  School,  New  York  City.  Cloth. 
659  pages.  With  maps  and  illustrations.  Introduction  price  .  50  cents. 


76  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

This  capital  story  is  given  without  abridgment  and  with  such 
helps  from  the  editor  as  seem  necessary  for  the  best  understand- 
ing of  the  plot.  There  are  questions  upon  the  important  mat- 
ters in  each  chapter  and  suggestions,  for  brief  written  or  oral 
exercises. 

Silas  Marner 

By  GEORGE  ELIOT.  With  introduction  and  notes  by  GEORGE  A.  WAU- 
CHOPE,  Professor  of  English  in  South  Carolina  College.  Cloth.  288  pages. 
Nine  full-page  illustrations  by  W.  H.  LAWRENCE.  Introduction  price 

35  cents. 

The  editor  gives  an  interesting  introduction  to  the  story,  a 
very  suggestive  list  of  study  topics,  biographical  outline,  literary 
references,  and  a  few  words  to  the  teacher.  The  illustrations 
add  a  new  charm  to  this  exceptionally  interesting  story. 

Julius  Caesar 

In  the  Arden  Shakespeare.     Based  on   the  Globe  text.     144  pages 

25  cents. 

This  edition  is  especially  suited  to  young  readers,  being  de- 
voted to  the  literary  and  dramatic  interpretations  of  the  plays, 
rather  than  to  finding  material  for  the  study  of  philology.  The 
purpose  of  the  editor  of  this  edition  has  been  to  make  it  a  "  liv- 
ing thing  and  not  mere  word-mongery. " 

The  Merchant  of  Venice 

In  the  Arden  Shakespeare.     142  pages        .        .        .        .25  cents. 

The  Vicar  of  Wakefield 

By  OLIVER  GOLDSMITH.  Introduction  and  notes  by  WILLIAM  HENRY 
HUDSON,  Professor  of  English  Literature,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  Uni- 
versity. Cloth.  Seventeen  full-page  illustrations.  300  pages  50  cents. 

The  text  followed  is  that  of  the  last  edition  printed  during 
Goldsmith's  lifetime,  and  containing  his  final  emendations.  The 
introduction,  notes,  and  illustrations  are  intended  to  aid  in  de- 
veloping an  intelligent  appreciation  of  Goldsmith's  prose  and  of 
the  perennial  charm  of  "  The  Vicar"  as  literature. 


A  FEW  WORDS  OF  APPROVAL  77 

A   FEW  WORDS   OF  APPROVAL 

FROM   BISHOPS   AND  CLERGY 

BISHOP  J.  L.  SPAULDING,  ST.  MARY'S  CATHEDRAL,  PEORIA,  ILL. 

"  I  am  much  pleased  with  the  plan  as  well  as  with  the  selections  sent  me." 

BISHOP  W.  C.  DOANE,  ALBANY,  N.Y. 

"  I  should  feel  much  confidence  in  the  character  of  the  books  selected." 

BISHOP  HUGH  MILLER  THOMPSON,  JACKSON,  Miss. 

"  I  shall  willingly  recommend  the  books  to  Sunday  School  and  other  libra- 
ries as  it  may  come  in  my  way." 

BISHOP  G.  MOTT  WILLIAMS,  MARQUETTE,  MICH. 

"  You  may  quote  me  in  hearty  indorsement  of  the  series." 

BISHOP  L.  R.  BREWER,  HELENA,  MONT. 

"  I  wish  you  success  in  your  attempt  to  publish  the  best  kind  of  literature, 
and  the  more  your  books  are  read  in  Montana,  the  better  I  shall  be  pleased." 

BISHOP  JOSEPH  M.  FRANCIS,  INDIANAPOLIS,  IND. 

"  I  think  them  most  excellent  in  every  way.  It  will  give  me  great  pleas- 
ure to  recommend  them  whenever  and  wherever  I  may  have  opportunity." 

BISHOP  THOMAS  F.  GAILOR,  SEWANEE,  TENN. 

"  I  think  that  the  series  is  admirable,  and  congratulate  you  upon  having 
provided  our  children  with  real  literature  in  such  attractive  form." 

BISHOP  WILLIAM  H.  HARE,  MISSIONARY  DISTRICT  OF  SOUTH  DAKOTA. 

"There  is  everything  about  their  appearance  which  is  agreeable  to  the  eye 
and  which  pleases  good  taste.  Their  contents  seems  to  me  calculated  to  lead 
young  readers  to  choose  them  rather  than  trashy  stuff,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  they  are  really  more  worth  choosing." 

BISHOP  WILLIAM  CRANE  GRAY,  ORLANDO,  FLA. 

"  I  have  examined  the  volumes  of  HEATH'S  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  CLASSICS, 
and  I  believe  them  to  be  wholesome,  as  well  as  entertaining  reading  for  children. 
Those  minds  trained  to  read  such  literature  will  be  able  to  enjoy  the  really 
beautiful  and  good,  and  will  not  pronounce  everything  '  dry '  and  '  stupid ' 
and  'silly'  which  is  not  exciting,  horrible,  and  verging  upon  crime  if  not 
really  criminal  —  as  those  do  who  are  allowed  the  freedom  of  the  modern 
fairy  tales,  impossible  adventures,  coarse  '  funny  books,'  which  are  put  into 
the  hands  of  almost  babies.  This  series  does  not  claim  to  be  religious  but 
seems  to  be  clean  and  of  high  moral  teaching.  I  think  it  a  real  godsend  to 
the  children  of  this  day." 


78  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 


FROM   BISHOPS   AND  CLERGY 

BISHOP  G.  D.  B.  MILLER,  ST.  Louis,  Mo. 

"The  list  of  books  published  by  you  and  as  given  by  you  is  excellent. 
I  can  heartily  indorse  them." 

THE  REV.  GEORGE  C.  LORIMER,  TREMONT  TEMPLE,  BOSTON. 

"  We  desire  to  express  most  heartily  our  approval  of  your  plan  and  our 
admiration  of  the  specimens  you  placed  at  our  disposal.  We  are  sure  that 
parents  would  deal  wisely  in  surrounding  their  children,  as  they  grow  up,  with 
such  admirable  productions  as  you  have  prepared  for  their  assistance  in  the 
culture  of  those  dependent  upon  them." 

THE  REV.  E.  WINCHESTER  DONALD,  RECTOR  TRINITY  CHURCH,  BOSTON. 
"The  series  is  far  and  away  the  most  remarkable  and  rational  and  whole- 
some provision  of  really  good  things  for  children  that  has  ever  fallen  under 
my  eye.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  adequately  to  say  how  fine  I  think 
they  are.  If  the  physical  preperties  of  a  book  can  tempt  a  child  to  read  it, 
surely  these  books  of  yours  will  be  read." 


FROM   UNIVERSITIES   AND  COLLEGES 

DAVID  S.  JORDAN,  PRES.  LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR  UNIVERSITY,  STAN- 
FORD UNIV.,  CAL. 

"  Your  excellent  series  for  children.  I  shall  be  glad  to  do  whatever  I  can 
to  encourage  the  use  of  these  superior  books  in  place  of  the  worthless  stuff 
so  often  put  in  the  hands  of  children." 

THEO.  W.  HUNT,  PROF.  OF  RHETORIC,  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  AND  LITERA- 
TURE, PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY,  PRINCETON,  NJ. 

"  The  series  impresses  me  as  an  admirable  one.  These  books  will  be  of 
great  educational  service  in  making  the  young,  at  home  and  at  school,  famil- 
iar with  the  best  books  of  the  best  authors." 

MARTIN  W.   SAMPSON,    PROF.  OF   ENGLISH,  UNIVERSITY  OF  INDIANA, 
BLOOMINGTON,  IND. 

"  I  shall  do  aH  that  I  can  to  make  the  series  known,  for  I  believe  it  sup- 
plies most  admirably  a  real  need." 

J.  W.  STEARNS,  PROF.  OF  PHILOSOPHY  AND  PEDAGOGY,  UNIVERSITY  OF 

WISCONSIN,  MADISON,  Wis. 

"  I  am  greatly  pleased  with  them.  They  are  light,  substantial,  beautifully 
printed  and  illustrated,  and  charming  in  matter.  Thoroughly  admirable. 
A  series  begun  with  such  volumes  can  hardly  fail  to  win  the  favor  of  old  and 
young." 

WM.  DeW.  HYDE,  PRES.  OF  BOWDOIN  COLLEGE,  BRUNSWICK,  ME. 
"  An  admirable  idea  admirably  executed." 


A  FEW  WORDS  OF  APPROVAL  79 


FROM    UNIVERSITIES  AND  COLLEGES 

CHAS.  WARREN  STODDARD,  PROF.  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE,  CATHOLIC 
UNIVERSITY  OF  AMERICA,  WASHINGTON,  D.C. 

"  Admirably  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  their  issue,  and  I  hope  and  trust 
will  meet  with  the  success  they  deserve." 

PROFESSOR  C.  T.  WINCHESTER,  OF  THE  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY,  DE- 
PARTMENT OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE,  MIDDLETOWN,  CONN. 

"Your  series  of  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  CLASSICS  is  admirable  —  admirably 
chosen,  edited,  and  printed.  I  like  the  purpose  and  the  plan  of  the  series  most 
heartily.  Nothing  could  be  better.  I  have  just  finished  reading  '  Goody  Two 
Shoes '  again;  how  delightful  it  is  with  its  simplicity  and  gentleness  and  truth, 
and  with  the  charming  reproductions  of  the  old-time  pictures.  Of  course 
Goldsmith  wrote  it;  nobody  else  in  his  day  could  have  written  it,  and  he 
never  wrote  anything  better." 

PROFESSOR  WALTER  C.  BRONSON,  BROWN  UNIVERSITY,  PROVIDENCE,  R.I. 
"  HEATH'S  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  CLASSICS  seem  to  me  a  remarkable  series 
of  books  for  supplementary  reading.  The  range  is  wide,  the  selection  judi- 
cious, the  editing  intelligent,  the  typography  excellent,  and  the  price  surpris- 
ingly low.  The  series  ought  to  do  much  to  cultivate  the  love  of  good  reading 
in  our  schools  and  homes." 

E.  M.  BROWN,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CINCINNATI. 

"The  children's  books  you  sent  I  have  examined  with  much  pleasure. 
They  are  admirable,  though  I  could  wish  they  were  in  more  durable  binding. 
It  makes  one  young  again  to  turn  to  these  ever-delightful  tales.  I  should  be 
glad  to  prepare  something  for  the  series,  as  you  suggest,  if  I  could  find  time 
to  do  so." 

PRESIDENT  NATHANIEL  BUTLER,  COLBY  COLLEGE. 

"  I  want  to  congratulate  you  upon  the  very  attractive  form  of  these  books. 
The  series  must  prove,  it  seems  to  me,  highly  successful  because  meeting  an 
actual  and  long-existing  demand." 

PROFESSOR  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY. 

"  The  plan  of  your  children's  books  seems  to  me  very  excellent,  and  so  far 
as  I  am  able  to  judge  you  are  carrying  it  out  well." 

PROFESSOR  EWALD  FLUEGEL,  STANFORD  UNIVERSITY. 

"  If  good  printing  and  careful  editing  have  ever  made  an  attractive  book, 
you  have  succeeded  in  it.  I  do  not  think  there  are  other  booklets  as  charm- 
ing and  as  cheap  in  the  market,  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  bring  good 
literature  and  good  taste  to  many  a  home  which  looked  for  its  food  in  very 
different  directions  before." 

PROFESSOR  SAMUEL  B.  HARDING,  INDIANA  UNIVERSITY. 

"They  are  excellent  in  every  respect,  —  in  selection,  in  editing,  and  in 
mechanical  execution,  —  and  cannot  be  too  highly  praised.  It  is  a  matter  for 
congratulation  that  books  of  such  high  merit  and  so  cheap  in  price  are  made 
available  for  children^.  It  will  give  me  pleasure  to  make  the  books  better 
known." 


80  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

P.  P.  CLAXTON,  SEC.  SOUTHERN  ED.  Assoc.,  GREENSBORO,  N.C. 

"This  idea  of  publishing  all  the  best  literature,  for  children  and  young 
people,  in  good  form  but  cheap,  is  a  most  excellent  one.  The  books  will  cer- 
tainly be  welcomed  by  other  teachers,  who  have  learned  that  there  is  some- 
thing better  in  school  reading  than  that  humdrum  drill  of  old-time  readers." 

MISS  ADA  VAN  STONE  HARRIS,  SUPERVISOR  OF  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS  AND 

KINDERGARTENS,  ROCHESTER,  N.Y. 

"  I  am  very  much  delighted  with  the  series.  The  selections  are  admirably 
chosen,  edited,  and  printed.  You  have  certainly  put  before  the  children,  and 
teachers  as  well,  an  excellent  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  much 
of  the  world's  best  literature.  I  am  sure  that  these  books  will  reach  the 
heart  of  the  adult  as  well  as  the  child.  I  want  to  congratulate  you  upon 
having  put  before  the  public  such  an  excellent  series  and  within  such  reason- 
able rates." 


FROM  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOLS 

C.  C.  VAN  LIEW,  PRES.  CAL.  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  CHICO,  CAL. 

"  I  am  very  much  pleased,  indeed,  with  these  opening  numbers  of  the 
series.  They  have  been  well  edited  and  carefully  selected.  It  is  specially 
pleasing  to  know  that  something  new  and  fresh  is  being  presented  in  the  best 
form.  I  shall  be  interested  in  the  further  development  of  the  series." 

PRESIDENT   H.   H.   SEERLEY,  IOWA  STATE    NORMAL   SCHOOL,   CEDAR 
FALLS,  IA. 

"  I  am  much  pleased  with  these  first  five  books.  I  can  heartily  commend 
the  series  if  it  maintains  the  standard  that  these  books  show.  I  did  an  un- 
usual thing  in  this  case  and  read  every  page  of  the  whole  number  sent  me. 
I  can  commend  them  as  worthy  of  the  patronage  of  the  teacher  and  parent. 
I  congratulate  you  upon  the  movement  to  put  them  in  the  form  and  price  to 
reach  school  and  home." 

E.  H.  RUSSELL,  PRIN.  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  WORCESTER,  MASS. 

"  I  congratulate  you  on  this  new  and  timely  issue,  which  can  hardly  fail 
to  become  popular  as  it  becomes  known.  I  hail  every  step  in  the  direction 
of  keeping  open  before  children  and  youth  a  broad  path  toward  our  incom- 
parable English  classics." 

G.  M.  PHILIPS,  PRIN.  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  WEST  CHESTER,  PA. 

"  Your  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  CLASSICS  are  well  selected  and  well  printed. 
I  believe  that  you  are  going  to  solve  the  question  of  providing  reading  which 
children  will  like  and  which  they  ought  to  like,  which  is  a  very  great 
problem." 


A  FEW  WORDS  OF  APPROVAL  8 1 


FROM   STATE  AND  SCHOOL  SUPERINTENDENTS 

FRANK  J.  BROWNE,  SUPT.  OF  STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION,  OLYMPIA, 

WASH. 

"  We  are  pleased  with  their  general  appearance  and  believe  they  will  prove 
useful  and  profitable  to  the  children." 

G.  R.  GLENN,  STATE  SCHOOL  COMMISSIONER,  ATLANTA,  GA. 

"These  books  will  be  very  valuable  not  only  for  supplementary  reading  in 
our  schools,  but  for  the  circulating  libraries  which  are  now  coming  into  use  in 
nearly  all  of  our  counties.  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  commend  them  to  the 
county  officials." 

HELEN  L.  GRENFELL,  SUPT.  STATE  OF  COLORADO  DEPT.  OF  PUB.  INST., 

DENVER,  COL. 

"  A  most  valuable  addition  to  the  supplementary  reading  now  published, 
and  owing  to  their  reasonable  price  and  attractive  form,  as  well  as  their  finely 
selected  contents,  I  am  sure  they  will  prove  a  great  success." 

THOMAS  J.  KIRK,  STATE  SUPT.  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION,  CAL. 

"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  give  them  my  heartiest  indorsement  as  books  for 
children.  They  are  good  either  for  supplementary  school  reading  or  for  home 
reading,  and  I  trust  you  may  find  extensive  sale  for  them  to  the  school  chil- 
dren of  California.  More  and  more  are  we  coming  to  realize  the  value  and 
need  of  an  abundance  of  good  reading  matter  in  our  elementary  schools." 

N.  C.  DOUGHERTY,  SUPT.  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS,  PEORIA,  ILL. 

"  They  are  well  gotten  up,  and  the  names  of  the  editors  assure  one  that  the 
literary  work  has  been  well  done." 

F.  TREUDLEY,  SUPT.  OF  SCHOOLS,  YOUNGSTOWN,  O. 

"  They  are  capital,  and  I  shall  take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  them  to 
our  principals  for  inspection." 

WALTER  E.  RANGER,  STATE  SUPT.,  MONTPELIER,  VT. 

"  From  the  first  HEATH'S  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  CLASSICS  has  impressed  me 
as  one  of  the  best  series  of  books  for  children  that  I  have  seen.  Better  selec- 
tions could  hardly  be  made.  Such  books  are  a  blessing  to  the  home  as  well 
as  to  the  school." 

/ 
FRANK  A.  HILL,  SECRETARY  STATE  BOARD,  MASS. 

"  Admirable  selections  that  cannot  but  commend  themselves  to  schools 
that  aim  to  extend  their  libraries  for  supplementary  reading." 


SARAH  C.  BROOKS,  ST.  PAUL,  MINN. 

"  I  have  examined  them  with  great  interest,  and  shall  place  them  where 
teachers  and  principals  may  examine  them.  I  look  forward  with  pleasure  to 
the  coming  of  the  remaining  volumes  of  the  series." 


82  THE  RIGHT  READING  FOR   CHILDREN 

ALICE  W.  COOLEY,  SUPERVISOR  OF  PRIMARY  DEPT.,  MINNEAPOLIS,  MINN. 
"  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  them,  and  shall  be  glad  to  say  a  good  word 
for  them  whenever  and  wherever  opportunity  offers." 

MISS  SARAH  L.  ARNOLD,  FORMERLY  SUPERVISOR  OF  SCHOOLS,  BOSTON. 
"Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  the  success  of  HEATH'S  HOME  AND 
SCHOOL  CLASSICS.  I  have  examined  with  delight  the  first  copies.  They  are 
thoroughly  good,  their  illustrations  are  charming,  and  the  whole  appearance 
of  the  page  is  pleasing.  The  books  are  well  edited  and  well  chosen.  I  do 
not  see  how  they  can  fail  to  succeed." 


FROM  PUBLIC   LIBRARIES 

F.  A.  HUTCHINS,  SEC.  Wis.  FREE  LIBRARY  COMMISSION,  MADISON,  Wis. 

"  They  will  be  of  great  value,  not  only  in  the  schools,  but  in  some  forms 
of  school  and  public  library  work." 

CAROLINE  M.  HEWINS,  PUBLIC  LIBRARIAN,  HARTFORD,  CONN. 
'•  I  am  very  happy  to  tell  you  how  good  they  are." 

MARY  W.  PLUMMER,  LIBRARIAN  PRATT  INSTITUTE  FREE  LIBRARY,  BROOK- 
LYN, N.Y. 

"  They  are  so  well  printed  for  children  and  so  very  reasonable  in  price, 
besides  being  valuable  as  literature." 

MELVIL  DEWEY,  STATE  LIBRARIAN,  ALBANY,  N.Y. 

"  The  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  CLASSICS  are  very  attractive  in  their  page,  type, 
and  general  appearance.  You  seem  to  have  started  a  good  thing  there,  and  I 
wish  you  all  success." 

FROM  THE  PRESS 

"  A  new  era  has  dawned  for  the  child  reader.  Classics  are  made  enticing 
and  put  in  the  way  of  the  little  people.  The  illustrations  deserve  more  than 
honorable  mention.  For  once,  here  are  pictures  that  may  find  a  response  in 
the  child's  mind,  and  at  the  same  time  be  attractive."  —  Chicago  Post. 

"  Writings  which  every  child  should  know  before  his  years  are  too  many 
to  permit  him  to  thoroughly  enjoy  them."  —  Detroit  Free  Press. 

"  The  little  volumes  present  a  charming  range  of  reading  for  children  of 
all  ages.  Teachers  and  mothers  will  prove  their  value  by  daily  use  in  the 
schoolroom  and  nursery."  —  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 

"  Famous  stories,  sketches,  and  plays  carefully  edited  and  attractively  printed 
in  good,  readable  type,  with  numerous  pen-and-ink  illustrations." — Outlook. 

"  All  of  these  books  are  illustrated  with  well-drawn  pictures,  which  accu- 
rately explain  the  text  and  are  of  artistic  value.  When  once  in  their  hands, 
these  books  will  prove  of  lasting  benefit  to  the  rising  generation." 

—  Boston  Journal  of  Education. 


. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


1  7  1967 


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VB 


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